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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
LUCIUS CARY 




LUCIUS CARY, SECOND VISCOUN1 FALKLAND 

AFTEK A PORTRAIT BY VA.NDYK AT VVARDOUR CASTLE 



THE LIFE AND TIMES 

OF 

LUCIUS CARY 
VISCOUNT FALKLAND 

BY 

J. A. R. MARRIOTT, M.A. 

LECTURER AND TUTOR IN MODERN HISTORY AT WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD 



WITH TWENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS 



New York : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

London: METHUEN & CO. 

1907 



A 






^0? 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface ix 



BOOK I 
INTRODUCTORY. THE MAN AND HIS AGE 

CHAPTER 

I. THE MAN I 

II. THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE — POLITICAL . . . 13 

III. THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE — ECCLESIASTICAL . . 27 

BOOK II 

EARLY LIFE. LITERATURE 

(1610-1639) 

I. PARENTAGE, BIRTH, EDUCATION AND MARRIAGE . 46 

II. GREAT TEW : SIB/ ET AMICIS 73 

III. THE "SESSIONS OF THE POETS " . . . . 82 

IV. THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM .... 98 

BOOK III 

POLITICS 

(1639-1642) 

I. THE GATHERING STORM 1 23 

II. THE LONG PARLIAMENT! FALKLAND AND "THOROUGH" 145 



VI 



FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 



CHAPTER PAGE 

III. THE LONG PARLIAMENT .' FALKLAND AND THE 

CHURCH 177 

IV. THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE FALKLAND AND PYM . 2IC 

V. FALKLAND AS SECRETARY OF STATE .... 223 

VI. ON THE EVE OF WAR 236 



BOOK IV 

WAR 

(August, 1642-SEPTEMBER, 1643) 

I. THE FIRST CAMPAIGN .... 

II. FALKLAND AT OXFORD .... 

III. PEACE NEGOTIATIONS .... 

iv. Falkland's last campaign 

V. EPILOGUE AND APPRECIATION 



251 
265 

287 

302 
326 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 



INDEX 



341 

345 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



LUCIUS cary, second viscount Falkland . . Frontispiece 

After a Portrait by Vandyk at Wardour Castle 

TO FACE PAGE 

BURFORD PRIORY 1 3 

From a Water Colour at the Bodleian 

TANFIELD MONUMENT IN BURFORD CHURCH . . . 27 

From a Photograph by H. W. Taunt, Oxford 

ELIZABETH SYMONDES, AFTERWARDS LADY TANFIELD . 47 

From a Picture in the possession of Viscount Dillon at 
Ditchley Park 

SIR LAURENCE TANFIELD ...... 49 

After an Original Picture at Burford Priory (Athow) 

ELIZABETH TANFIELD, WIFE OF HENRY, FIRST VISCOUNT 

FALKLAND ........ 54 

After a Portrait by Van Somer 

HENRY CARY, FIRST VISCOUNT FALKLAND ... 60 

From a Picture by Van Somer in the possession of Viscount 
Falkland 

LADY TANFIELD ........ 65 

After an Original Picture at Burford Priory (Athow) 

HENRY CARY, FIRST VISCOUNT FALKLAND . . . 71 

From an Engraving after the Original by Van Somer 

LUCIUS CARY, SECOND VISCOUNT FALKLAND ... 74 

From a . Pj^ture at the Bodleian 

THE VILLAGE OF GREAT TEW 8 1 

From a Photograph by Miss Matthews 

THE GARDENS AT GREAT TEW . . . . .122 

From a Photograph by Miss Matthews 



viii FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

TO FACE PAGE 

. CHARLES I. (THREE POSITIONS) 1 45 

From the Picture by Vandyk at Windsor 

LUCIUS, SECOND VISCOUNT FALKLAND . . . 1 77 

From an Engraving by Bocquet from the Picture then in the 
possession of the Duke of Queensberry 

•EDWARD HYDE, EARL OF CLARENDON .... 233 

After the Picture by Sir Peter Lely 

FALKLAND, WITH SEAL AND SIGNATURE . . . .244 

After the Portrait by Vandyk 

OXFORD IN 1643 2 ^5 

From an Engraving by W. Hollar lent by Falconer Ma- 
dan, Esq. 

BURFORD PRIORY, FRONT . . . . . .287 

From a Drawing by Edmund H. New 

Falkland's last march 313 

«, the first battle of newbury, 1 643 . . . 316 

From S. R. Gardiner's History of the First Civil War, by 
permission of Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. 

GREAT TEW CHURCH 318 

From a Photograph by H. W. Taunt, Oxford 

THE FALKLAND MONUMENT AT NEWBURY . . . 323 

From a Photograph by Hawker & Son, Newbury 

- LETTICE, WIFE OF LUCIUS, SECOND VISCOUNT FALKLAND . 33 1 
From a Picture by Janssen in the possession of Viscount 

Falkland 



PREFACE 

I WISH to explain briefly the scope and purpose 
of this book. My hope is that it may be read 
as it has been written, not merely as a biography — long 
since overdue — of Lucius Cary, Lord Falkland, but 
as a political study of the man and his times. 

Intended primarily for the "general reader," it 
makes no parade of original research, but scholars 
will perceive that it is based throughout upon a study 
of contemporary documents and authorities, and I 
entertain a hope that it may be accepted not only as 
embodying the results of the most recent research, 
but even as making - a modest contribution to the 
extant knowledge of the subject. I hasten to add 
that any claim which may be advanced for the book 
on this score rests mainly upon the kindness and 
generosity of friends. In particular I am deeply in- 
debted to the Rev. A. B. Beaven, M.A., of Leaming- 
ton, late Headmaster of Preston School, who has 
kindly read the whole of the proofs and has placed 
his stores of ripe and accurate scholarship most 
generously at my disposal. I owe much also to Mr. 

b 



x FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

C. H. Firth, Regius Professor of Modern History, 
who has helped me with advice particularly in regard 
to sources of which he has unrivalled knowledge ; and 
much also to a former pupil, Miss Enid Routh, of Lady 
Margaret Hall (Alexander Historical Prize, 1903), 
who has most kindly undertaken researches for me at 
the Record Office and the British Museum. But the 
harvest gathered by Mr. S. R. Gardiner has left little 
there for subsequent gleaners. My indebtedness to 
writers on the period is acknowledged in an appendix 
(Bibliographical Note), but it is a pleasure to record 
other debts which I have incurred. The fundamental 
one is to my friend and colleague, the Rev. W. 
Hudson Shaw, M.A., late Fellow of Balliol College, 
who was the first to inspire me, as he has inspired many, 
with an affectionate reverence for the character of 
Falkland and a desire to vindicate his memory. It is 
the simple truth that but for that inspiration this book 
would not have been written, and my only regret in 
writing it has been that the execution of the task did not 
fall into Mr. Shaw's more competent hands. My wife 
and daughter have greatly lightened the heavy burden 
of transcribing speeches, letters and documents, and 
have compiled the index. My thanks are due also to 
the officials of the Bodleian Library, and particularly to 
Mr. Falconer Madan, who kindly lent me for reproduc- 
tion the map of Oxford ( 1 643) ; and to my friend and col- 
league, Mr. T. W. Jackson, Vice- Provost of Worcester 
College and Curator of the Hope Collection of en- 
graved portraits, who has been exceedingly helpful in 



PREFACE xi 

regard to the illustrations. Viscount Dillon, the 
Curators of the Bodleian Library and Viscount Falk- 
land have also been most kind in permitting the re- 
production of interesting portraits in their possession. 

I have printed without abridgment, and in the 
text, all Falkland's great speeches which are extant. 
Exception may be taken to the disproportionate space 
they occupy, but I have at least given readers who 
may share my own abhorrence of abridged reports 
in the oratio obliqua an opportunity of appreciating 
Falkland's position on some of the most momentous 
questions of the day. Other readers will skip them. 

Of the shortcomings of the work — a work pursued 
amid many distractions — no one can be more con- 
scious than myself, but I have done what in me lay 
to raise a worthy monument to the memory of one of 
the greatest Englishmen of the seventeenth century. 



J. A. R. M. 



Oxford 
February, 1907 



FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 



BOOK I 
CHAPTER I 

THE MAN 

FALKLAND'S place in the politics of the seventeenth 
century is unique. In popular estimation he scarcely 
ranks with Strafford or Pym, with Hampden or Cromwell. 
But to the philosophical historian the career of Falkland 
presents problems of exceptional interest and importance, 
while every student of humanity must rejoice in the reve- 
lation of a character which combined in no ordinary degree 
the intellectual luxuriance of the Greek and the moral 
austerity of the Puritan. A man of culture surrounded 
by narrow-minded fanaticism ; a lover of truth beset by 
bigots ; a farseeing statesman reduced to despair by party 
spirit, Falkland, distracted by the difficulties of the present, 
has a special claim upon the future. 

The period in which he lived lacked neither great issues 
nor great men, and some preliminary attempt must be made 
to disentangle the issues and to explain Falkland's relation 
thereto. 

The problems bequeathed by the sixteenth century to 
the seventeenth were at once supremely significant and 



2 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

exceptionally complex. The men called upon to solve 
them were of no mean stature. Unfortunately, those who 
were most conspicuous in place were not most conspicu- 
ous in wisdom. James I. might, in ordinary times, have 
taken fair rank among English sovereigns, but the times 
were not ordinary, and James I. was not an English- 
man. He was a shrewd and not unkindly Scotch pedant, 
with intellectual interests above the common, but curiously 
devoid of political tact. The son who succeeded him was 
more of a Churchman but even less of a statesman than his 
father. In a humbler station he might have lived a blame- 
less and a useful life. Possessed of considerable personal 
attraction, a devoted son of the Anglican Church, an exem- 
plary husband, and an affectionate father, Charles I. had 
many of the gifts and qualifications which make for 
domestic happiness. But he was called to play a part of 
exceptional difficulty, and he was unequal to it. There 
was no lack of men well qualified to supply the deficiencies 
of the first two Stuart kings. The " stacks of statutes " 
under which Lambarde and his fellow-magistrates groaned 
had at least provided an admirable political training for the 
Tudor country gentleman ; but neither James I. nor Charles I. 
had sufficient sagacity to avail themselves of the material 
ready to hand. Where his personal passions were not in- 
volved James I. was a shrewd judge of men ; but in matters 
of State he preferred to rely upon the help of a favourite 
like Essex or Buckingham, rather than listen to the sage 
counsels of a Bacon, a Digby or an Eliot. Charles I. was 
no wiser in this respect. It is not indeed easy to imagine 
Coke and Dudley Digges except in opposition ; but neither 
Eliot nor Hampden were in any sense opposed to mon- 
archical institutions ; and John Pym, one of the greatest 
statesmen of that or any other age, was perhaps the one 
man in the century who had a clear and firm grasp of the 



THE MAN 3 

principles which might even then have reconciled the strength 
and decorum of monarchy with an adequate measure of 
popular control. Nay, had Wentworth been admitted to 
the confidence of his Sovereign in 1625 instead of in 1628, 
the whole course of subsequent events might have been 
radically different. Of the men who played a leading part 
in the later acts of the drama it is not necessary now to 
speak. Lilburne and the younger Vane, Ludlow and Hazel- 
rig were unequivocal Republicans, but Ireton and Cromwell, 
even if they had leanings originally in that direction, dis- 
covered their mistake before the death of the King, and did 
their utmost to repair it. 

In the long gallery of seventeenth-century portraits, 
what special place are we to assign to that of Lucius Cary, 
Viscount Falkland ? As to the position of the statesman 
and the thinker there has been infinite dispute ; as to the 
lineaments of the man there are none. Clarendon painted 
the portrait of his friend in colours which will never fade. 
" At the battle of Newbury was slain the Lord Viscount 
Falkland ; a person of such prodigious parts of learning 
and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetness and delight 
in conversation, of so glowing and obliging a humanity 
and goodness to mankind, and of that primitive simplicity 
and integrity of life, that if there were no other brand upon 
this odious and accursed civil war than that single loss it 
must be most infamous and execrable to all posterity." 
Clarendon, it may be urged, wrote under a sense of recent 
and irreparable personal loss. But Bishop Burnet, who is 
under no suspicion of partiality, has supplied testimony to 
Falkland's character which, if less emphatic than Clarendon's, 
is, from its casual and unpremeoitated nature, even more 
remarkable. " Bishop Morley," he writes, " first became 
known to the world as a friend of Lord Falkland's, and 
that was enough in itself to raise a man's character." 



4 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Such is the testimony of personal friendship and recent 
tradition. 

But for nearly two hundred years the fame of Falkland 
suffered complete eclipse, or, at best, suggested an oppor- 
tunity for a passing sneer at a character compounded of 
genial amiability and political ineffectiveness. Horace 
Walpole was remarkable rather for incisive malignity than 
for profoundity of historical research. But the sketch of 
Falkland in his Royal and Noble Authors is important as 
having struck the note of historical criticism for several 
generations. Walpole bluntly suggests — ignoring such un- 
impeachable testimony as Burnet's — that nothing but the 
literary skill of a partial friend had rescued the memory 
of an undistinguished but amiable nobleman from well- 
merited oblivion. Royal and Noble Authors has fallen into 
deserved neglect, but a passage which apparently inspired 
the judgment of not Hallam only, but Carlyle and Macaulay 
may perhaps justify quotation : — 

" There never was a stronger instance of what the magic 
of words and the art of an Historian can effect, than in the 
character of this Lord, who seems to have been a virtuous, 
well-meaning Man with a moderate understanding, who got 
knocked on the head early in the civil war, because it boded 
ill : And yet by the happy solemnity of my Lord Clarendon's 
diction, Lord Falkland is the favourite personage of that 
noble work. . . . That Lord Falkland was a weak man, to 
me appears indubitable. We are told he acted with Hamp- 
den and the Patriots, till He grew better informed what was 
Law. It is certain that the ingenious Mr. Hume has shewn 
that both King James and King Charles acted upon pre- 
cedents of prerogative which they found established. Yet 
will this neither justify them nor Lord Falkland. If it 
would, where ever tyranny is established by Law, it ought to 
be sacred and perpetual. Those Patriots did not attack King 



THE MAN 5 

Charles so much for violation of the Law, as to oblige him 
to submit to the amendment of it : . . . Nor to descant too 
long : it is evident to me that this Lord had much debility 
of mind and a kind of superstitious scruples, that might flow 
from an excellent heart, but by no means from a solid under- 
standing. His refusing to entertain spies or to open letters, 
when Secretary of State, were the punctilios of the former, 
not of the latter ; and his putting on a clean shirt to be 
killed in, is no proof of sense either in his Lordship, or in 
the Historian, who thought it worth relating." 

The last words refer to the gossip recorded by " wooden- 
headed old Bulstrode," who is mainly responsible for the only 
serious slur upon the character of Falkland. By not a few 
writers the facts of his life are interpreted in the light of 
the supposed manner of his death. Historians of the highest 
repute — including Mr. S. R. Gardiner — have not scrupled 
to affirm that Falkland died on the field of Newbury by 
a death scarcely distinguishable from suicide. The sole 
authority for this damaging insinuation is the well-known 
passage in Whitelocke's Memorials : " Lord Falkland on the 
morning of the battle called for clean linen, as though ex- 
pecting to be slain. His friends tried to dissuade him from 
fighting, but he declared that he was weary of the times, 
foresaw much misery to his own country, and did believe 
he should be out of it ere night." Assuming that White- 
locke's tittle-tattle accurately represents the facts — a large 
assumption — what ground does it afford for the charge of 
suicide ? That Falkland was politically broken-hearted we 
know from Clarendon ; that he was congenitally courageous 
to the verge of recklessness we shall see in the course of 
this history ; but what evidence does Whitelocke produce 
of suicidal intent? 

Bulstrode Whitelocke's mischievous insinuation would 
possess no significance apart from the aspersion it casts 



6 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

upon the general character of Falkland. 1 There can, how- 
ever, be no question that it has tended to substantiate 
the charges of political levity, of moral weakness and 
of intellectual instability not unfrequently preferred against 
him. Macaulay, as has been often pointed out, is as 
conspicuously unfair in his judgment upon men, as he is 
sagacious and discriminating in his judgment on events. 
His contemptuous reference to Falkland is an instance in 
point. " He was indeed a man of great talents and of 
great virtues, but, we apprehend, infinitely too fastidious 
for public life. . . . He was always going backward and 
forward. . . . Dreading the success of the cause which he 
had espoused, disgusted by the courtiers of Oxford as he 
had been disgusted by the patriots at Westminster, yet 
bound by honour not to abandon the cause for which he 
was in arms, he pined away, neglected his person, went 
about moaning for peace, and at last rushed desperately 
on death, as the best refuge in such miserable times. If 
he had lived through the scenes that followed, we have 
little doubt that he would have condemned himself to share 
the exile and beggary of the royal family ; that he would 
then have returned to oppose all their measures ; that he 
would have been sent to the tower by the Commons as a 
stifler of the Popish Plot, and by the King as an accomplice 
in the Rye House Plot ; and that, if he had escaped being 
hanged, first by Scroggs, and then by Jefferies, he would, 
after manfully opposing James the Second through years of 
tyranny, have been seized with a fit of compassion at the 
very moment of the Revolution, have voted for a Regency, 

1 The suggestion finds an echo, perhaps, in Pope's well-known lines : — 

" See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just ! 

See godlike Turenne prostrate on the dust ! 

See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife ! 

Was this their virtue, or contempt of life ? " 

Pope, Essay on Man, Ep. iv. 



THE MAN 7 

and died a nonjuror." 1 This is, in form, the merest clap- 
trap of criticism. But in essence it is not unfairly repre- 
sentative of much of the critical judgment of that period. 

The popular judgment in nowise concerned itself with so 
insignificant a personage as the second Viscount Falkland. 
How complete was the oblivion into which his memory had 
fallen, even in the districts where it might naturally have 
been cherished most warmly and persistently, we are now 
in some danger of forgetting. Many circumstances have 
combined to attract the attention of the antiquary to the 
Cotswold town where Lucius Cary was born, and to the 
Oxfordshire village where! the happiest days of his brief 
life were spent. But for two centuries and a half after 
Falkland had fallen in Newbury fight, Great Tew possessed 
no visible memorial whatsoever of the man whose brief reign 
has conferred immortality upon a secluded village, and Bur- 
ford boasts none to-day. The monument at Newbury was 
erected in 1878, and supplied the text for Matthew Arnold's 
magnificent panegyric. To the publication of the latter, in 
conjunction with Mr. Goldwin Smith's spirited but splenetic 
rejoinder, the revived popular interest in Falkland's career 
may, in some measure, be ascribed. But, in truth, the reasons 
alike for the long neglect and for the marked revival are not 
difficult to discern. 

Cut off at the age of thirty-three, ere his career was well 
begun, Falkland founded no party. Had his life been pro- 
longed to the ordinary span he might well have failed to do 
so, for he was no partisan. He was a pure and single- 
minded patriot ; he had a firm grasp on political principles ; 
he pursued intellectual truth with undeviating steps, but the 
appeal of party left him cold. Thus while the memory of a 
Calvin or a Laud is cherished enthusiastically by the devoted 
adherents of the schools they founded ; while Strafford and 

1 Macaulay, Essay on Hallam, p. 72. 



8 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Pym, Charles and Cromwell stand as conspicuous and 
honoured figures to the strong party men of all time, no 
sacred fane has been dedicated to the memory of the great 
" apostle of moderation," and the tomb of the martyr of the 
Via Media remains to this day not merely unhallowed but 
unknown. The party system has obvious advantages, but 
it will scarcely be denied that it tends to the exaggerated 
exaltation of the straight party men, and the undue deprecia- 
tion of the less easily satisfied seekers after truth, — the more 
refined spirits whose grasp on principle is stronger than their 
devotion to party. 

Such an one was Lucius Cary, Lord Falkland, and it is 
natural, therefore, that he should be judged most fairly by 
men who stand somewhac apart from the ordinary groups, 
political or ecclesiastical. The late Earl of Carnarvon was 
one of the most high-minded of later Victorian statesmen, 
but he was never entirely easy under the restraints of party 
discipline. His judgment on Falkland was therefore in- 
spired by sympathy as well as by admiration. " When we 
look back," he said, " to the history of the Civil War I can 
think of no character that stands out in higher, purer relief 
than Falkland's". 1 Matthew Arnold, in the sphere of 
Letters and Thought, occupied a position of similar detach- 
ment, and from no pen has there come a juster or more 
discriminating appreciation of Falkland's merits as a thinker, 
as a politician, and as a man. " If we are to find a martyr 
in the history of the great civil war, let it be Falkland. 
He was the martyr of lucidity of mind and largeness of 
temper in a strife of imperfect intelligences and tempers 
illiberal. . . . Shall we blame him for his lucidity of mind 
and largeness of temper ? Shall we even pity him ? By 
no means. They are his great title to our veneration. 
They are what make him ours; what link him with the 
1 Quoted by Matthew Arnold. 



THE MAN 9 

nineteenth century. He and his friends, by their heroic and 
hopeless stand against the inadequate ideals dominant in 
their time, kept open their communications with the future, 
lived with the future. Their battle is ours too ; and that we 
pursue it with fairer hopes of success than they did, we owe 
to their having waged it and fallen." 1 

But apart from the triumph of the Party system, there 
is another and more subtle reason which may well have told 
against the posthumous fame of Falkland. If he has little 
attraction for the historian who, like Macaulay, is also a 
keen political partisan, he has hardly more for the sedentary 
student like Carlyle or Gardiner. Carlyle's monumental 
edition of Cromwell's Letters and Speeches contains only 
one reference — and that a contemptuous one — to Falkland. 
Under the head of " First Newbury Battle " he notes " Poor 
Lord Falkland in his clean shirt was killed here ". 2 Nor is 
the reason for this contempt far to seek. Just as James I., 
himself uncouth of aspect and ungainly in form, was irresis- 
tibly attracted by the fine features and clean limbs of George 
Villiers, so the sedentary student is naturally drawn more 
to the strenuous and successful men of action, to the Straf- 
fords and Cromwells, and less to the contemplative statesman 
who surveys the field of party strife in quest of truth rather 
than of victory. Never was a historian more painstaking in 
research, or more judicially impartial in his personal verdicts 
than Mr. Gardiner. It is indeed sorry work to attempt to 
glean in a field which he has reaped, and as regards the 
bare facts of Falkland's career he has left little unnoticed. 
But it is impossible not to detect in the midst of his glowing 
and eloquent eulogy on Falkland's great qualities of heart 
and mind, a note of irritation and impatience at his supposed 
lack of political fibre and at his failure to achieve any definite 
political results. No one has appreciated more justly Falk- 

1 Mixed Essays. 2 Carlyle (ed. Lomas), i., 153. 



io FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

land's ultimate aim. " The desire to secure intellectual 
liberty from spiritual tyranny was," he writes, " the ruling 
principle of his mind. His claim to our reverence lies in 
the fact that his mind was as thoroughly saturated as Mil- 
ton's was with the love of freedom, as the nurse of high 
thought and high morality, while his gentle nature made 
him incapable of the harsh austerities of Milton's combative 
career." But few have judged more hardly his failure as a 
practical politician, the failure of one who was called against 
his will to the responsibilities of high office when he was 
barely thirty, who was plunged two years later into a civil 
war which he loathed, and who died broken-hearted at thirty- 
three. "As an efficient statesman Falkland has little claim 
to notice. He knew what he did not want, but he had no 
clear conception of what he did want ; no constructive im- 
agination to become a founder of institutions in which his 
noble conception should be embodied. It was this deficiency 
which made him . . . choose the royalist side not because he 
counted it worthy of his attachment, but because the parlia- 
mentary side seemed to him to be less worthy, and to accept 
a political system from his friend Hyde as he had accepted 
a system of thought from his friend Chillingworth. Falk- 
land's mind in its beautiful strength as well as in its weak- 
ness was essentially of a feminine cast." 1 Mr. Gardiner 
does not, in set phrase, prefer against Falkland any of those 
charges of political inconstancy which come so glibly from 
the facile pen of Lord Macaulay, but the insinuations against 
his political character are hardly less damaging. It would 
be interesting to inquire what scope there was for the display 
of administrative efficiency between 1641 and 1643, DU t: it 
is an inquiry which must be deferred. If the following pages 
do not disclose the positive objects at which Falkland aimed, 
not less than the abuses which he sought to amend and 
'G. (ap. D.N.B.). 



THE MAN ii 

the evils which he strove i to avert, they will have been 
written in vain. 

One thing at least is certain. However much critics 
may continue to differ as to the value of Falkland's political 
example, there is no longer any danger that it will be ignored. 
That he should have had to wait until the nineteenth 
century for recognition, or at least for appreciation, was not 
unnatural. Many of his contemporaries — with less reason 
— had to do the same. Not until the nineteenth century 
did the English people begin to look steadfastly or seriously 
to the rocks — political and ecclesiastical — whence they 
were hewn, or begin adequately to praise their famous men 
and the fathers that begat them. Historical research was 
stimulated by a widening of political interest and a deepen- 
ing of religious zeal. The two great movements within the 
English Church : the evangelical revival and the Oxford 
movement ; the long series of Parliamentary enactments : 
the Acts of 1832, of 1835, of 1867, of 1885, of 1888, and of 
1894, Acts by which ever-increasing numbers were admitted 
to the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, imperial and 
local ; the development of the habit of political discus- 
sion upon the platform and in the Press ; the diffusion of 
education, and the growth of wealth — all these things tended 
to awaken political interest and therefore to quicken histori- 
cal research. Many of them, moreover, combined to con- 
centrate attention upon the times of Strafford and Clarendon, 
of Pym and Hampden, of Vane and Cromwell, of Andrewes 
and Laud, of Milton and Bunyan, of Baillie and Baxter, of 
Hales and Chillingworth and Falkland. Of all these names 
that of Falkland has, perhaps, been least " had in remem- 
brance ". But the period of oblivion is past ; the ultimate 
vindication is assured. The reasons for both have been 
already adumbrated, and will be developed in detail in 
chapters to come. For the present we may content our- 



12 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

selves with the succinct but sufficient summary in the closing 
passage of Dr. Tulloch's noble tribute to Falkland's memory : 
" His mind like all higher minds saw not so much outward 
as inward change. He shrank from revolution in Church 
or State ; but he would have liberalised both, in a higher and 
nobler sense than his contemporary revolutionists, ecclesi- 
astical or political. His ideas were born out of due time ; 
and the extremes, first of destruction and then of reaction, 
were destined to run their course. In all times of excite- 
ment this is more or less likely to be the case. The voice 
of reason is unheard amongst the clamours of party, and a 
Falkland dies broken-hearted when a Cromwell and a 
Clarendon take their turns of success. But the seed of 
wise thought never perishes ; and Falkland's ideal of the 
Church no less than of the State may yet be realised." 1 

1 Rational Theology in the Seventeenth Century. 



CHAPTER II 

THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE— POLITICAL 

ENOUGH, for the present, of the man. Before proceed- 
ing to a detailed description of his career, it seems 
desirable to examine briefly the nature of the problems by 
which he and his contemporaries were confronted. There 
were, in fact, two main problems, which though closely inter- 
mingled and interdependent were in reality distinct. The 
one concerned the ecclesiastical settlement of the nation ; the 
other the political or constitutional. In both cases the con- 
ditions were infinitely complex, and in both the solution had 
been rendered more difficult by a conscious postponement of 
the day of reckoning. 

The Stuart kings may have been largely responsible for 
the actual and ultimate form which the crisis assumed, but it 
is impossible to ignore the fact that the trouble had been 
brewing in the later years of Queen Elizabeth. The defeat 
and dispersion of the Armada marked the real close of the 
Tudor Dictatorship. For just a century the English people 
had been well content to leave the reins of government in 
the strong and capable hands of their Tudor sovereigns. 
The latter had performed their responsible functions with 
conspicuous tact and brilliant success. But during the last 
years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth there were many 
symptoms, more particularly in the House of Commons, 
that the people were conscious of the fact that the necessity 
for the dictatorial rule had passed away. They devised, or 

13 



i 4 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

acquiesced in the Tudor system in order to meet a critical 
emergency in the nation's history. From the dynastic 
confusion of the fifteenth century the country had emerged 
politically exhausted, economically anaemic and socially 
distraught. The weakness of the Lancastrian Government 
at home and abroad ; the collapse of a political experiment 
prematurely attempted ; the impotence of the executive ; 
the paralysis of law; the fatal lack of governance so per- 
sistently deplored by Fortescue; the opportunities thus 
afforded to ambitious princes and to an " overmighty " 
baronage ; the humiliating issue of the French war ; the 
loosening of England's hold on Ireland ; the faction fights 
which saturated the home land with blood — all these things 
made the nation not merely ready but eager to sacrifice 
every thing for a firm administration, and to accept with 
enthusiasm the strong but masterful rule of the Tudor sove- 
reigns. 

But the Tudors had done their work. The nation had 
come through the critical years of the sixteenth century, not 
merely without shipwreck, but strengthened, disciplined, 
braced and invigorated by the period of dictatorial govern- 
ment. It has been the fashion to regard that period as one 
of almost untempered despotism ; but it lacked the charac- 
teristic and differentiating feature. A despotism leaves a 
people — when the strong hand of the despot is removed — 
enervated, helpless and perplexed. The Tudor rule, on the 
contrary, was essentially educative. It left the people ready, 
as they had never been ready before, to take upon their own 
shoulders the high responsibilities of self-government. In 
Parliament, in Council, as ministers and magistrates, the 
flower of the middle classes had been steadily trained for 
the work to which they would presently be called. Never 
had the legislative activities of Parliament been so conspicu- 
ous ; never had the varied functions of local government been 



THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE— POLITICAL 15 

so rapidly extended and developed. And the long discipline 
told. For some years before the death of Queen Elizabeth 
Parliament and people were ready for the inevitable change. 
James I. was hardly seated on the English throne before 
the House of Commons drew up the famous Apology of 1604. 
No one can read it without rinding therein clear indications 
that the Commons had consciously postponed the assertion 
of their rights and privileges out of regard for the person- 
ality and achievements of the late Queen. Mr. Gardiner 
declared with emphasis that "to understand this apology 
is to understand the cause of the success of the English 
Revolution". It is in truth a very remarkable document, 
and was intended to put before the monarch, in unequivocal 
terms, the position, powers and privileges of the House of 
Commons as understood by the House itself. "We have 
been constrained ... to break our silence and freely to 
disclose unto your Majesty the truth of such matters con- 
cerning your subjects the Commons, as hitherto by misin- 
formation hath been suppressed or perverted. . . . Against 
these misinformations we most truly avouch, — first, that 
our privileges and liberties are our right and due inheritance, 
no less than our very lands and goods. Secondly, that they 
cannot be withheld from us, denied or impaired, but with 
apparent wrong to the whole state of the realm. Thirdly, 
that our making of request, in the entrance of Parliament, 
to enjoy our privilege is an act only of manners, and doth 
weaken our right no more than our suing to the King for 
our lands by petition, which form, though new and more 
decent than the old by praecipe, yet the subject's right is no 
less now than of old. Fourthly, we avouch also, that our 
House is a court of record, and so ever esteemed. Fifthly, 
that there is not the highest standing court in this land 
that ought to enter into competency, either for dignity or 
authority, with this high court of Parliament, which, with 



16 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

your Majesty's royal assent gives laws to other courts, but 
from other courts receives neither laws nor orders. Sixthly, 
and lastly, we avouch that the House of Commons is the 
sole proper Judge of return of all such writs, and of the 
election of all such members as belong unto it, without 
which the freedom of election were not entire ; and that 
the Chancery, though a standing court under your Majesty, 
be to send out those writs and receive the returns, and to 
preserve them ; yet the same is done only for the use of the 
Parliament; over which, neither the Chancery, nor any 
other court, ever had, or ought to have, any jurisdiction. 
From these misinformed positions most gracious Sovereign, 
the greatest part of our troubles, distrusts, and jealousies 
have risen, having apparently found that in the first Parlia- 
ment of the happy reign of your Majesty, the privileges of our 
House and therein the liberties and stability of the whole 
kingdom, have been more universally and dangerously im- 
pugned than ever {as we suppose) since the beginning of 
Parliament? 

The immediate reasons for the drafting of the Apology 
are stated not obscurely. Firstly, because under Queen 
Elizabeth there was a general feeling that matters in dis- 
pute between Crown and Parliament should not be pushed 
to extremities. Secondly, because any breach might have 
imperilled — a home thrust — the peaceful succession of King 
James himself. " Besides that, in regard of her sex 
and age, which we had great cause to tender, and much 
more, upon care to avoid all trouble which by wicked 
practice might have been drawn to impeach the fact of 
your Majesty's right in the succession, those actions were 
then passed over which we hoped in succeeding time of freer 
access to your Highness of renowned grace and justice to 
restore, redress and rectify!' Finally : the grievous disap- 
pointment of these hopes, and the danger that the proceed- 



THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE— POLITICAL 17 

ings of this first Parliament might be taken as a precedent 
made it imperative to correct misapprehensions at once. 
Thus from the first moment that a Stuart king set foot on 
English soil the situation was one of infinite delicacy and 
difficulty. It could be saved, if saved at all, only by ex- 
ceptional tact on the part of the Sovereign, and by a clear 
and accurate apprehension of the points at issue. 

What was the precise scope and nature of the political 
problem which in the seventeenth century pressed insistently 
for solution ? In barest outline it may be described as a 
contest for Sovereignty. Where, in the English Constitution, 
did ultimate sovereignty reside ? Was it — as the Stuarts 
insisted, and as Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury held — in 
the Monarchy? Or in the King in Parliament, according 
to the view of Eliot and Pym ? Or in Parliament alone, as 
the Protectorate Parliaments contended ? Or in the people 
as the Levellers taught ? The question, though here academic- 
ally stated, was far from being academic. Under the first 
two Stuart kings it touched practical politics at a hundred 
points ; it lurked in questions of taxation ; in the admini- 
stration of justice ; in matters affecting the personal liberty 
of the individual citizen, and in the broader, if not more 
important, questions touching the position of Parliament, and 
the relations of the Legislature, the Executive, and the Judi- 
ciary. 

Such was the problem. What of the man who was called 
upon to solve it ? James I. was described by a contempor- 
ary as the wisest fool in Christendom. The description was 
singularly inapt, for James was as far removed from folly as 
he was from political wisdom. He was in reality a pedantic 
doctrinaire : by no means devoid of learning, and with a 
considerable dash of practical shrewdness and sagacity, but 
with an unfortunate leaning to the study of political philo- 
sophy. Thus he came to England with preconceived views 



18 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

as to the theory of the English Constitution, and the practical 
position of the English Crown. Small blame to James 
Stuart if he imagined that the Tudors had bequeathed to 
him a crown which was all but unlimited in authority. But 
it was the crowning irony of the situation that the success 
of the Tudor monarchs had rendered impossible, because un- 
necessary, a continuance of the Tudor monarchy. Well had 
it been for England had the Stuarts been able to discern this 
elementary but far from obvious truth. Writ large before 
the eyes of their subjects, it was unfortunately hidden from 
theirs. From the outset they propounded a theory of the 
English monarchy which was historically untenable, and 
politically fraught with mischief and confusion. Alike in his 
True Law of Free Monarchies and in speeches in the Star 
Chamber, James I. gave expression to doctrines which must 
have sounded strangely harsh in the ears of statesmen and 
lawyers trained in the tradition of Bracton and Fortescue 
and Hooker : " As for the absolute prerogative of the Crown, 
that is no subject for the tongue of a lawyer, nor is it lawful 
to be disputed. It is atheism and blasphemy to dispute 
what God can do ; good Christians content themselves with 
His will revealed in His Word, so it is presumption and high 
contempt in a subject to dispute what a King can do, or say 
that a King cannot do this or that ; but rest in that which is 
the King's will revealed in his law." 1 

The language of the King found an echo in that of 
Arminian preachers and legal professors. Thus Dr. Roger 
Mainwaring : " The King is not bound to observe the laws 
of the realm concerning the rights and liberties of his sub- 
jects, but his royal will and command doth oblige the subjects' 
conscience upon pain of eternal damnation ". 

Very similar is the language of Dr. Cowell, Reader in 
Civil Law at the University of Cambridge, and the author 
1 Speech in Star Chamber, aoth June, 1616. 



THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE— POLITICAL 19 

of a law dictionary entitled The Interpreter, a work 
" noticed " by the House of Commons and prudently sup- 
pressed by Royal Proclamation. "The King," wrote Dr. 
Cowell, " is above the law by his absolute power ; and 
though for the better and equal course in making laws he 
do admit the three estates, that is, Lords Spiritual, Lords 
Temporal, and the Commons into council, yet this, in 
divers learned men's opinions, is not .of constraint, but of 
his own benignity or by reason of his promise made upon 
oath at the time of his coronation. For otherwise were he 
a subject after a sort and subordinate, which may not be 
thought without breach of duty and loyalty. For then must 
we deny him to be above the law, and to have no power of 
dispensing with any positive law, or of granting especial 
privileges and charters unto any which is his only and clear 
right." And again : " Of these two, one must needs be true 
that either the King is above the Parliament, that is, the 
positive laws of his Kingdom, or else that he is not an abso- 
lute King. . . . And, therefore, though it be a merciful 
policy, and also a politic mercy (not alterable without great 
peril), to make laws by consent of the whole realm, because 
so no one part shall have cause to complain of a partiality, 
yet simply to bind a prince to or by those laws were repug- 
nant to the nature and constitution of an absolute Monarchy." 
But such precepts, though characteristic of the Civil 
Law, had never found acceptance among English publicists. 
Quod principi placuit legis vigorem habet was a principle 
which had no place in English jurisprudence. So far back 
as the thirteenth century Bracton, to whose authority Cowell 
unwisely appealed, had explicity denied its validity, and had 
affirmed the contrary principle : " Rex autem habet superi- 
orem, Deum scilicet ; item legem per quam factus est rex ; 
item curiam suam, videlicet comites, barones, quia comites 
dicuntur quasi socii regis, et qui habet socium habet magis- 



20- - | FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

trum : et ideo si rex fuerit sine fraeno, id est sine lege, 
debent si fraenum ponere, nisi ipsimet fuerint cum rege sine 
fraeno." 

Two centuries later Sir John Fortescue, writing for the 
instruction of a Lancastrian prince, had set forth in un- 
equivocal terms the essentially " limited " and " consti- 
tutional " character of the English monarchy : " A King of 
England cannot at his pleasure make any alterations in the 
laws of the land, for the nature of his government is not 
only regal but political. . . . He can neither make any 
alteration or change in the laws of the realm without the 
consent of the subjects nor burden them against their wills 
with strange impositions, so that a people governed by such 
laws as are made by their own consent and approbation 
enjoy their properties securely and without the hazard of 
being deprived of them either by the King or any other. 
. . . For he is appointed to protect his subjects in their 
lives, properties, and laws ; for this very end and purpose 
he has the delegation of power from the people and he has 
no just claim to any other power but this." Even in the 
sixteenth century, when the sun of the Tudor monarchy 
was at the zenith, Hooker ventured to re-echo the language 
of the earlier constitutionalists. " Lex facet regem ; the 
King's grant of any favour made contrary to the law is 
void ; what power the King hath he hath it by law, the 
bounds and limits of it are known." 

That the constitutional tradition was unbroken we may 
learn from such a work as Sir John Eliot's Monarchy of 
Man, no less than from the Parliamentary utterances of his 
immediate political associates. " The law, "wrote Eliot, " is 
the ground of authority, all authority and rule a dependent 
of the law. The edict of Gratian was not only an edict for 
that time but for the generations of succeeding ages, and for 
all posterity to come. Rightly, therefore, and most worthily, 



THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE— POLITICAL 21 

stiled an oracle. And in correspondence to this, is the 
modern practice of these times. Almost in all the states of 
Europe, princes at the assumption of their crowns assume 
and take an oath for the maintenance and observation of 
the laws. So, if we look either into authority or example, 
the use and practice of all times from the moderne to the 
ancient, the reason is still cleare, without any difficulty or 
scruple, de jure, in right, that princes are to be regulated by 
the laws, that the law has an operation on the Sovereign." 

We are thus confronted on the threshold of the period 
with two contrasted and conflicting views as to the character 
of the English monarchy, and its place in the English Con- 
stitution. To prevent theoretical differences from develop- 
ing into actual political conflict called for the exercise of 
patience and tact to which neither side justly can lay claim. 
It is only fair, however, to the Stuarts to remember that the 
doctrine of an indefeasible Divine hereditary right was in 
one sense thrust upon them by the circumstances of their 
accession to the English throne. By the will of Henry VIII. 
executed under special Parliamentary sanction, the Crown 
was settled upon the descendants of his younger sister 
Mary, to the exclusion of, or in preference to, those of his 
elder sister Margaret, Queen of Scotland. But on the death 
of Elizabeth the statutory claim of the Suffolks was quietly 
ignored, and no serious question was raised as to the 
superior practical validity of that of the Stuarts. A wise 
man would have left the matter there ; but the Stuarts were 
never content to let sleeping dogs lie. They demanded not 
merely the practical recognition of a right, but the theoretical 
acceptance of a dogma. To be in actual and undisputed 
enjoyment of the English throne was not enough for a 
pedantic Scotch metaphysician. He must needs provoke 
dispute, if not conflict, by the formulation of a doctrine 
which would never be permitted to take its place un- 



22 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

challenged among the constitutional maxims of a conserva- 
tive and freedom-loving people. 

Nor was the theory of Divine Right devoid of far- 
reaching political applications. In practice it resolved itself 
into perpetual insistence upon the doctrine that the Crown 
possessed a twofold power : an ordinary power, ascertained, 
bounded and limited by law ; and a special or extraordin- 
ary power, unknown to and unlimited by law and to be 
exercised at the sole discretion of the Sovereign. It was 
in reliance upon this extraordinary or prerogational power 
that James I. intervened in the matter of impositions, 
and it was in deference to this doctrine that the Judges 
decided in favour of the Crown in the famous test case 
promoted by the Levant merchant, Bate. This again was 
the principle at the back of the argument urged on behalf 
of the Crown in the case of ship-money. The Judges had 
already declared their opinion that His Majesty was "the 
sole judge both of the danger and when and how the same 
is to be prevented and avoided". Hampden's Counsel — 
Oliver St. John and Holborne — might argue " that the Par- 
liament by the law is appointed" as the ordinary means for 
supply upon extraordinary occasions when the ordinary 
supplies will not do it," and that in this case the emergency 
was not so sudden or so pressing but that Parliament might 
have been summoned to meet it. But in view of the doctrine 
of inherent extraordinary power such argument was vain. 
Who could judge of the emergency but the King? Such 
power was " innate in the person of an absolute king and 
in the persons of the kings of England ". The view taken 
by the Crown lawyers was endorsed by the judgment of the 
Court. Clarendon was aghast less at the decision itself 
than at the grounds upon which it was based. It was indeed 
" a logic which left no man anything which he might call 
his own ". 



THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE— POLITICAL 23 

Precisely the same principle was at the root of the Stuart 
contention as to the limits of personal liberty. The King 
required a forced loan. Honourable gentlemen declining to 
comply were committed to prison, and writs of Habeas Corpus 
were resisted by the Crown. What was the ground of 
committal and detention ? Speciale mandatum Regis. Who 
could question, even in cases affecting the personal liberty of 
the subject, the special prerogative of the Crown — the re- 
serve power vested in it for the benefit of the community at 
large. The same principle again is implicit in the Stuart 
claim to legislate by " proclamation," or to " suspend " or 
" dispense with " laws already made. It is unnecessary to 
multiply examples. But in passing we may observe that 
upon this foundation rests the whole of that great system of 
Droit Administratis the absence of which so sharply differ- 
entiates English administration from that of her continental 
neighbours. 

It is obvious that in every political community some 
such " reserve power," or " prerogative," must exist, and that 
some body or person must be entrusted with the exercise of 
the " discretion ". Without it the executive would be nerveless 
and impotent, and the lack of governance would soon be 
disastrously apparent. But how can its existence be ren- 
dered compatible with adequate securities for the liberty of 
the individual citizen, and for the maintenance of political 
freedom in the community at large ? That is the crux of 
the problem which confronts every political society as it 
emerges from the paternal stage. That was the essential 
core of the contest between the Stuart monarchs and their 
Puritan Parliaments. 

The ultimate point at issue may be narrowed down with 
even greater precision. Who was to control the executive 
government ? There was no sort of disposition among the 
popular leaders to get rid of the monarchy. There was no 



24 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

settled design on the part of James I., or even Charles I., to 
get rid of Parliament. The latter, indeed, found the Parlia- 
mentary " hydra, cunning as well as malicious " ; but had the 
early Stuart Parliaments been willing to confine themselves 
to the functions prescribed to them by Bacon — to make 
laws, to vote taxes, and to keep the King informed as to the 
state of public feeling — there would have been small cause 
for dispute between the Commons and the Crown. But such 
a position would no longer satisfy ardent Parliamentarians 
like Sir John Eliot and John Pym. They believed that the 
time had come for the assumption of a larger and more 
important function ; that Parliament should not rest content 
with doing its legislative, its taxative, and its informative 
work ; but that it should boldly lay hands upon the execu- 
tive, that it should become a "government-making organ". 1 
In the Grand Remonstrance* the claim is definitely avowed. 
"That His Majesty," so the section runs, "be humbly 
petitioned by both Houses to employ such counsellors, am- 
bassadors, and other ministers, in managing his business at 
home and abroad as the Parliament may have cause to 
confide in, without which we cannot give His Majesty such 
supplies for support of his own estate nor such assistance to 
the Protestant party beyond the sea as is desired." Here 
we have an explicit demand for the appointment of an 
executive " responsible " to the legislature, as the sole 
condition for the continuance of adequate Parliamentary 
supplies. But twenty years before this Eliot had implicitly 
asserted the same principle. His attack upon Buckingham 
was inspired less by the desire to get rid of an incompetent 
favourite than by anxiety to vindicate the doctrine of minis- 
terial responsibility. The bitterness with which Pym hounded 
Strafford to his death was not perhaps devoid of personal 
malice ; but the swiftness with which he swooped upon his 

1 Cf. Seeley, Lectures on Political Science. z § 197. 



THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE— POLITICAL 25 

prey, and the tenacity with which he clung to his illustrious 
victim, testify to his grasp upon the great principle for which 
Eliot died. 

It seems idle to pretend that the position taken up by 
the Parliamentary leaders was wholly conservative, and that 
of the Crown purely reactionary. The time had come 
for the registration of an important stage in constitutional 
evolution ; but however evolutionary the process, the work 
of registration is rarely accomplished without friction. In 
popular phraseology it is possible to describe Thomas 
Cromwell and Lord Burghley, Sir Robert Walpole and the 
younger Pitt as the " First Ministers " of their respective 
sovereigns. But no student of political science can suppose 
that the relation of Cromwell to Henry VIII. was in any 
sense analogous to that subsisting between Walpole and 
George I. The time may come when the Imperial Chan- 
cellor in Germany will be transformed into a Parliamentary 
Prime Minister, but it is ludicrous to imagine that the change 
could be effected without a profound modification of the 
balance of the Constitution. 

But is it inevitable that the registration of an evolutionary 
change should involve revolution and civil war? That in 
England war and revolution were concomitants of this par- 
ticular change is unfortunately true. But many circumstances 
combined to involve us in this disaster. Apart from the 
personality of the sovereigns, the times were ripe for change. 
It is difficult to believe that any amount of political sagacity 
or personal tact could for long have postponed a crisis. But 
such qualities might at least have secured that the crisis 
should be peacefully surmounted, and that political divisions 
should not have been accentuated to the point of war. 
Fortune has rarely proved herself more capricious or per- 
verse than when she seated, at a supremely critical moment 
in English history, Scotch kings on the English throne. 



26 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Utterly lacking in political intuition, in sagacity and in sym- 
pathy, they never even began to apprehend the real nature of 
the problems by which they were confronted, or the character 
and prejudices of the people with whom they had to deal. 
But even so, had the point at issue been merely political, 
there would have been no civil war, and Falkland would not 
have died broken-hearted on the field of Newbury. The 
transition from personal to Parliamentary monarchy can 
hardly be otherwise than awkward. But the issues are not 
such as to involve the fiercest prejudices or the deepest 
passions of mankind. Had there been no Puritanism in the 
Puritan Revolution, had it been possible to isolate the politi- 
cal issue, had the Stuart kings been merely champions of 
the cause of personal monarchy, the struggle might have 
been severe, but the change would have been accomplished 
without bloodshed. It was the attack upon the Church 
which raised a party for the King ; and it was the narrow 
dogmatism and the naked intolerance of the Puritan zealots 
which converted Falkland into a minister of the Crown. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE— ECCLESIASTICAL 

IN the previous section an attempt has been made to de- 
fine with some precision the scope of the constitutional 
problem which the seventeenth century was called upon to 
solve. But it has been shown that the political issue would 
not in itself have been sufficient to produce those deep 
divisions which eventually draw good men on both sides to 
plunge, however reluctantly, into fratricidal war. It needed 
the concomitant stimulus of ecclesiastical passion and religious 
zeal. It is necessary, therefore, to attempt a similar analysis 
of the conditions which prevailed in the spiritual sphere. 

The ecclesiastical problem may be stated crudely thus. 
What was to be the connotation of the term The Church ? 
Was the Church to be in the future as in the past co-extensive 
with the nation ? Was it to continue to be the State in its 
ecclesiastical and religious aspect ? Assuming an affirmative 
answer to this question, a second remained : What was to 
be the government and doctrine of this National Church? 
Was it to be Roman, Anglican or Puritan ? Was it to be 
governed by Bishops or by Presbyters ? Was it to look for 
definition of doctrine to Trent, to Augsburg, or to Geneva? Or 
might it rest content with the compromise of the Elizabethan 
Settlement ? If, on the other hand, the old unity of Church 
and State was to be dissolved, if diversity of creed and 
worship and government was to be admitted, still more 
difficult and novel were the problems which would press for 

27 



28 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

solution. Were all creeds and churches to be on an equality, 
mutually tolerant of each other ? Or was the State to as- 
sociate itself in particular with one form of ecclesiastical 
organisation ? If so, which was it to be ? And what were 
to be the relations of the State and the State Church to the 
other religious bodies ? It may be said at once that these 
latter questions were purely academic — at any rate during the 
earlier years of the century. Upon one point all parties 
were agreed : that the Church must be co-extensive with 
the nation. The only practical question to be decided was, 
whether that National Church should be Roman Catholic, 
Anglican or Presbyterian. 

The first stage in the English Reformation had been 
closed by the Elizabethan Settlement. That Settlement was 
based upon the great Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity 
(1559), and upon the acceptance of the Thirty-Nine Articles, 
first by Convocation (1563) and subsequently by Parliament 
(1571). Effected by statesmen and not by theologians 
inevitably it was a compromise, which though acceptable 
to and accepted by the great mass of Elizabeth's subjects 
could not be otherwise than disappointing, if not distasteful, 
to the more zealous adherents both of Rome and of Geneva. 
What proportion of the nation these formed it is impossible 
to say. It is easy to trace the history of the English Refor- 
mation so far as it is recorded in the pages of the statute-book. 
It is not difficult to draw certain conclusions from confessions 
and creeds. But the attempt to gauge with precision the 
religious sentiments of the people at large is a task which 
baffles the most patient and ingenious historical research. 
But while admitting the liability to error, it is permissible to 
hazard the conjecture that the mass of the nation would 
have been well content had the Reformation movement 
been permitted to stop at the point where Henry VIII. 
ultimately left it. 



PROBLEM OF THE AGE— ECCLESIASTICAL 29 

Englishmen of all classes had long chafed under the 
domination of the Papacy ; and they heartily welcomed 
the abrogation of Papal authority and the transference to 
the Crown of the Supreme Headship of the English Church. 
The whole body of the laity were glad to see the end of 
many clerical abuses and extortions, and they witnessed 
without regret the curtailment of the powers of the Ec- 
clesiastical Courts and of Convocation. The dissolution of 
the monasteries, though not accomplished without some 
popular protest, at least formed an effectual guarantee 
against the complete restoration of the old order. But 
for any sweeping changes in doctrine or ritual few were 
prepared, and it may be surmised therefore that Henry 
VIII.'s Six Articles represented not unfairly the doctrinal 
preferences of the great majority of his subjects. With the 
accession of Edward VI. England was subjected to other 
influences. Foreign divines were appointed to important 
posts in the universities and elsewhere, and things began 
to move, steadily under Somerset, precipitately under 
Northumberland, in a Protestant direction. How little 
the new tendencies were liked by the people was proved 
by the insurrections under Edward VI., and still more by 
the unanimity of the welcome accorded to the daughter of 
Catherine of Aragon. But Queen Mary was not merely a 
fervent Catholic, but a fanatical Papist. For the restora- 
tion of Catholicism her subjects were prepared ; to the 
complete reinstatement of Papal authority they demurred. 
The Marian persecution did far more for doctrinal Protestant- 
ism than the Edwardian divines ; while the continental 
complications in which the country was involved by the 
Spanish marriage gave emphasis to the growing sense of 
nationalism in England. 

For this, and for other reasons, the accession of Queen 
Elizabeth was hailed with enthusiasm by all parties. But 



30 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

despite the warmth and unanimity of her welcome, the path 
of the new Queen was beset by appalling difficulties and 
dangers. Of these the ecclesiastical problem was the most 
urgent. Elizabeth may have possessed strong religious con- 
victions, but she was not a keen partisan. More of a 
statesman than a theologian, she was apt to subordinate 
ecclesiastical to political consideration. But as a politique 
she was, perhaps, all the better fitted to preside over a 
settlement, which, from the nature of the case, was bound 
to be a compromise. That settlement, however, was 
accepted by the nation at large as at any rate sufficient 
for the time. As the reign went on, both parties became 
more restless. The Papacy could not afford either to 
ignore or to acknowledge the daughter of Anne Boleyn. 
In Mary Stuart the Papal party had ready to hand an 
excellent candidate for Elizabeth's throne. Circumstances 
brought the two Queens, and the two women, into lifelong 
antagonism. Thus from the moment of her flight into 
England, after the defeat at Langside, until the day of her 
death, Mary Stuart became the inevitable focus, if not the 
instigator, of ceaseless plots and intrigues against the Crown 
and life of Queen Elizabeth. Other elements of restlessness 
were not wanting. The devoted but mischievous labours 
of the Jesuit mission began in time to tell even upon the 
loyalty of the English Catholics. Elizabeth was moved 
to action slowly and with reluctance. For the first twelve 
years of her reign she steadily declined to interfere with 
the religious opinions of her subjects so long as they paid 
outward deference to the Established Church of the realm. 
But the attack delivered by the Papacy and sustained by 
the Jesuits and the Seminary Priests compelled Queen and 
Parliament to abandon the policy of prudent and tolerant 
laissez-faire. To speak of the statutes passed by Parliament 
for the protection of the Queen and country, or the con- 



PROBLEM OF THE AGE— ECCLESIASTICAL 31 

demnation of men like Campion and Parsons as savouring 
of religious persecution, is simply an abuse of language. 
The Government were reluctantly driven to use the only 
weapons at their command to avert a grave political danger. 

The problem presented by the position of the Puritans 
was much more complex. Whitgift's crusade against them 
cannot be justified on the ground of political necessity. But 
it is impossible to deal fairly either with Elizabeth or her 
successors without bearing in mind the nature of the Puritan 
demand. It was not a claim for toleration. The obscure 
Brownist congregations might have been glad to accept it, 
but Independency did not become the dominant force in 
Puritanism until the Civil War. The Presbyterian claimed 
nothing less than the right to impose his elaborate system 
of Church government and his detailed and definite creed 
upon the whole nation. And his claim was based upon 
the loftiest and most uncompromising principles. The Jus 
divinum of Geneva was in no sense less rigid or more com- 
plaisant than that of Rome. 

But although there were moments during the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth at which it seemed that principles would 
be pushed to their logical extremes, the times were so critical, 
external dangers were so menacing, and the sense of obliga- 
tion to the Queen was so general and so profound that there 
was a strong disposition in the ecclesiastical not less than 
in the political sphere to postpone the assertion of extreme 
claims to a more convenient season. 

The opportunity came with the death of the old Queen 
and the accession of James I. 

The Stuart king found himself face to face with three 
ecclesiastical parties, two of which contained several sub- 
divisions. As to the position and claims of the Roman 
Catholics there was no ambiguity. The great wave of the 
Counter- Reformation had spent something of its force, but 



32 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

the Roman Church had emerged from the storms of the 
preceding century strengthened and invigorated, and its 
leaders in England looked hopefully to the accession of the 
son of Mary Stuart. Logically they could accept nothing 
short of complete and undivided supremacy ; in practice they 
were anxious to obtain the largest possible instalment of 
toleration. Some considerable measure they had, under the 
circumstances, a right to expect. James indeed made no 
secret of his own devotion to Protestantism, or of his desire 
to rid his kingdoms of Jesuits and priests. But, before his 
accession, he had assured Cecil that he was unwilling that 
the blood of any man should be shed for diversity in 
religion, and he repeated the assurance in his first Parliament. 
It is true that he refused to give Pope Clement VIII. any 
definite encouragement, despite the Pope's promise that 
he would oppose any attempt on the part of the Roman 
Catholics to exclude James from the throne. On the other 
hand, the importunity of Northumberland was not without 
result. "As for the Catholics," wrote the King, "I will 
neither persecute any that will be quiet, and give but an 
outward obedience to the law, neither will I spare to advance 
any that will by good service worthily deserve it." Similar 
assurances were repeated more than once during the first 
months of the reign, and James honestly endeavoured to 
fulfil his promise. In the existing temper of Parliament it 
would have been sheer madness to attempt to repeal the 
penal laws which pressed with such severity upon the Roman 
Catholics ; but though they remained upon the statute-book 
they were enforced only against priests, while the recusancy 
fines incurred by laymen for non-attendance at Church were 
generally remitted. It was not a large measure of toler- 
ation, but the results were sufficiently marked to alarm a 
Puritan Parliament and a timid King. Before the first year 
of the reign was out the strength of the Roman priest- 



PROBLEM OF THE AGE— ECCLESIASTICAL 33 

hood in England had been reinforced by the landing of 
140 missionaries; many conversions were effected, and re- 
turns ordered by the Government showed, as was to be 
expected, a large increase in the number of recusants. On 
22nd February, 1604, the King, on the advice of the Privy 
Council, issued a proclamation for the banishment of all 
priests before the end of March ; but when Parliament met 
on 19th March he gave renewed expression to the hope that 
the behaviour of the Catholic laity would enable him to 
relieve them from persecution. It was a vain hope. The 
increase in the number of avowed Catholics was so obvious 
and so alarming that in July the King assented to a Bill 
by which the penal laws were re-enacted with increased 
stringency. Even now they were not to be immediately 
enforced, but to be held in terrorem over the heads of the 
Catholics. The policy was thoroughly characteristic of its 
author ; of his amiable intentions and his practical ineptitude. 
The result was such as any statesman would have antici- 
pated. It alarmed the Puritans without conciliating the 
Catholics. Resting upon no intelligible principle, it could 
not possibly afford a basis for a permanent solution of the 
problem. The position of the Catholics was for the moment 
tolerably satisfactory. How long it would remain so de- 
pended absolutely upon the will of an unstable King, and 
upon his view of the exigencies of the political situation. A 
few months sufficed to show that their position was ex- 
ceedingly precarious. Rumours reached England that the 
King's conversion was imminent ; the Spanish ambassador 
demanded as a condition of a marriage that Prince Henry 
should be sent to Spain to be educated as a Catholic. The 
rumour was groundless, and the demand was not seriously 
entertained. But the results were disastrous to the Catholics. 
In February, 1605, James protested to the Council "his utter 
detestation of their superstitious religion, and that he was 
3 



34 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

so far from favouring it as, if he thought that his son and 
heir after him would give any toleration thereunto, he would 
wish him fairly burned before his eyes ". It was the violent 
language of a weak man. But weak as he was James was 
almost alone in his leanings towards toleration. An order 
was issued for the execution of the penal laws, which judges 
and others were only too eager to obey, and the immediate 
result was that nearly six thousand persons were convicted 
of recusancy. Persecution was followed by conspiracy ; the 
enforcement of the penal laws by Gunpowder Plot. 

An ingenious attempt has recently been made to represent 
the plot as a manufactured conspiracy devised by zealous 
Protestants for the purpose of terrifying the King into perse- 
cution. " There are," writes Father Gerard, " grave reasons 
for the conclusion that the whole transaction was dexter- 
ously contrived for the purpose which in fact it opportunely 
served, by those who alone reaped benefit from it," l in other 
words, by Robert Cecil (Lord Salisbury), and the ultra- 
Protestants. Mr. S. R. Gardiner has, however, completely 
knocked the bottom out of Father Gerard's argument, and 
we may, therefore, if we will, continue to celebrate the Guy 
Fawkes' festival, secure from the haunting dread that we are 
assisting in the perpetuation of an historical imposture. 2 

Meanwhile, the vicious circle was completed. The en- 
forcement of the penal laws drove the Catholic extremists 
into a treasonable and murderous conspiracy ; the conspir- 
acy shattered all possibilities of toleration, and impelled the 
Government to further penal legislation. Viewed from the 
lofty eminence of twentieth-century criticism, such legislation 
appears to be both wicked and stupid. But the seventeenth 
century was far removed from the twentieth ; the time for 

1 Father Gerard, What Was Gunpowder Plot ? The Traditional Story 
tested by Original Evidence. 

2 S. R. Gardiner, What Gunpowder Plot Was. 



PROBLEM OF THE AGE— ECCLESIASTICAL 35 

theoretical toleration was not yet. Acts of great severity 
were placed upon the statute-book, but, nevertheless, the 
position of the Catholics steadily improved. Rigid enforce- 
ment of the penal laws was incompatible with negotiations 
for a Spanish match ; and, later on, the advent of Queen 
Henrietta Maria was naturally followed by still further im- 
provement in the lot of her co-religionists. There were, 
of course, from time to time, outbursts of anti-Roman fanati- 
cism, but they recurred with diminishing force and at 
increasing intervals. The fact is that the position of the 
English Papists gradually ceased to present a serious political 
problem. Perfect loyalty to their Church was proved in 
course of time to be in no wise inconsistent with perfect 
loyalty to Crown and State ; and although, for two centuries, 
they were excluded from power, and even debarred from 
the exercise of the ordinary rights of citizenship, they ceased 
to be regarded as a menace to the safety of the common- 
wealth. 

Infinitely more complex was the problem presented by 
the position of the Puritans. The term itself demands 
definition, for it is frequently employed with confusing 
inexactitude. The term as used in the first half of the 
seventeenth century really embraced three more or less 
distinct ecclesiastical parties : the evangelican Churchmen or 
" conforming Puritans " ; the Presbyterians ; and the Inde- 
pendents and other less defined Sectaries. With the first 
and possibly with the third section some compromise might 
perhaps have been effected : with the second it was im- 
possible. It was, in reality, the high and exclusive claims of 
Presbyterianism which constituted the real stumbling-block 
in the path towards religious unity, or at the least towards 
religious toleration, in the period under review. 

The one bond of union between the different sections of 
Puritanism was the acceptance of the doctrine, though not 



36 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

the system of Church government, dictated from Geneva. 
The conforming Puritans were not opposed to Episcopacy, 
but they accepted it without enthusiasm, repudiated the 
jus divinitm, and desired to see it shorn of many of its 
characteristic attributes. It is probable that in time this 
party would have been drawn gradually and insensibly into 
full acceptance of the Presbyterian system with its virile 
organisation, its clear-cut dogmas, and its strong and effec- 
tive discipline. Prince, a Puritan writer entitled to respect, 
thinks otherwise. " If," he writes, " the unscriptural parts of 
the Common Prayer had been removed, or the ceremonies 
left indifferent ; the Popish habits changed for more comely 
garments ; the Pope's decrees with the Inquisition oath called 
ex officio abolished and the Hierarchy thus reformed : the 
general frame of Diocesan Episcopacy had no doubt remained 
untouched, and almost all the people of England had con- 
tinued in it without uneasiness." 1 We cannot pursue a 
speculation which is as fascinating as it is futile ; but it is 
important to remember that so late as the reign of Charles I. 
" the great majority of the Puritans were not Separatists 
from the communion of the Church of England, but formed 
a party within the National Church ". 2 

It was these " conforming" Puritans who at the very out- 
set of the new reign presented to James I. the Millenary 
Petition. The Petitioners prayed : (i) That certain altera- 
tions might be effected in the Church service ; that the sign 
of the cross in baptism, the use of the ring in marriage, the 
cap and surplice, such terms as " Priest " and " absolution ' 
should be omitted, and the rite of confirmation abolished ; 
(2) that none should be admitted into the ministry " but 
able and sufficient men" ; (3) that certain abuses connected 
with non-residence, pluralities, and tithe impropriation should 

1 Chronological Annals of New England. 

2 Sanford, Great Rebellion. 



PROBLEM OF THE AGE— ECCLESIASTICAL 37 

be abolished, and (4) that Church discipline, more parti- 
cularly as administered by the ecclesiastical courts and en- 
forced by the oath ex officio should be reformed. 1 It is these 
"conforming" Puritans again whose position is defined in 
the Apology of 1604: — 

" For matter of religion it will appear by examination of 
the truth and right, that your Majesty should be misin- 
formed if any man should deliver that the Kings of England 
have any absolute power in themselves either to alter religion 
(which God forfend should be in the power of any mortal 
man whatsoever) or to make any laws concerning the same 
otherwise than in temporal causes by consent of Parliament. 
We have and shall at all times by our oaths acknowledge 
that your Majesty is sovereign lord and supreme governor 
in both. Touching our own desires and proceedings therein 
they have been not a little misconceived and misinterpreted. 
We have not come in any Puritan or Brownist spirit to in- 
troduce their parity, or to work the subversion of the state 
ecclesiastical as it now stands . . . we came with another 
spirit, even with the spirit of peace ; we disputed not of 
matters of faith and doctrine, our desire was peace only and 
our device of unity how this lamentable and long standing 
dissension among the ministers might at length be ex- 
tinguished. . . . Our desire hath been also to reform certain 
abuses crept into the ecclesiastical state even as into the 
temporal ; and lastly that the land might be furnished with 
a learned, religious and godly ministry for the maintenance 
of whom we would have granted no small contribution if in 
these (as we trust) just and religious desires we had found 
that correspondency from others which was expected." 

How far the repudiation of " Puritanism" and of revolu- 
tionary aspirations was sincere, or rather how far the " con- 

1 For text cf. Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church 
History. 



38 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

formists " appreciated the full force and signification of their 
own position and demands, it is very difficult to say. But 
this much is clear from the proceedings of the Hampton 
Court Conference. Rightly or wrongly James I. confounded 
Puritanism with Presbyterianism, and was resolutely minded 
to discourage both as inimical to the monarchical idea. 
" Presbyterianism," he declared, " agreeth as well with mon- 
archy as God and the devil. Let that government be once 
up we shall all of us have work enough, both our hands full." 
The position of the Presbyterians is really free from 
ambiguity. But it has been curiously misconceived, and in 
view of the prominent part played by Falkland in the de- 
fence of the established system, it is necessary to define it 
with precision. Milton'r, famous epigram expresses the 
exact truth. " New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large." 
The Presbyterian, no less than the Roman or Anglican, 
believed in a Church, visible, universal, and Divinely ordered. 
The jus divinum of Presbyterianism was as clear and precious 
to him as the jus divinum of Episcopacy to the Catholic. 
His claim on behalf of his Church, made to and conceded 
by the Westminster Assembly, is thus stated by Baillie, 
the most representative Presbyterian writer of the time : 
" A Presbytrie, even as we take it, is ane ordinance of God, 
which hath power and authoritie from Christ, to call the 
ministers and elders, or any in their bounds, before them, 
to account for any offence in life or doctrine, to try and 
examine the cause, to admonish and rebuke, and if they be 
obstinate, to declare them as Ethnicks and publicans, and 
give them over to the punishment of the Magistrates ; also 
doctrinallie, to declare the mind of God in all questions of 
religion, with such authoritie as obliedges to receave their 
just sentences." 1 

Hence the Presbyterian did not and could not ask for 

1 Letters, ii., 147. 



PROBLEM OF THE AGE— ECCLESIASTICAL 39 

toleration, for permission to exist side by side with the 
Anglican. He demanded exclusive ascendancy; and that 
the English Church should be remodelled as regards govern- 
ment, formularies, ritual, and discipline, on the lines laid down 
in the Commentaries of John Calvin. The Presbyterian was 
in fact the High Catholic of Puritanism, and the Genevan 
type of Catholicism was even less Erastian than the Roman. 
That Calvinism involved republicanism was untrue ; but 
James I. was shrewdly right in perceiving that the system 
which he knew in Scotland was distinctly repugnant alike to 
the spirit of the State Church in England and to the theory 
of monarchy which the Stuarts sought to establish. 

But of all extraordinary misconceptions the strangest 
and perhaps the most persistent is that which identifies the 
spirit of Puritanism with that of religious liberty. Puritan- 
ism — at least in its Presbyterian phase — was in its essence 
bitterly intolerant. Two things poor Dr. Baillie regards 
with abhorrence. One is a " lame Erastian Presbytery," as 
desired by Selden and the Parliamentary lawyers. " The 
Pope and the King," he groans, " were never more earnest 
for the headship of the Church than the pluralitie of this 
Parliament." The other is the idea of toleration. " Some 
few of the most active men of the House of Commons and 
armie are for too general a libertie for all consciences ; but 
the most of both Houses are right and sound, and the bodie 
of the city is zealous against all errors and confusions." x 
At the same time with delightful inconsistency he deplores 
the lack of tolerance among the New England Puritans. 
" In all New England no libertie of living for a Presbyterian. 
Whoever there, were they angells for life and doctrine, will 
assay to sett up a diverse way from them (the Independents) 
shall be sure of present banishment."' 2 What was sauce 
for the old England goose was far from being, in Baillie's 

1 Baillie, Letters, ii., 413. 2 ii., 165. 



40 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

eyes, sauce for the New England gander. "Angells for life 
and doctrine," unless they were willing to submit to the 
Presbyterian yoke, had no chance of toleration at the hands 
of the Westminster divines. With the Presbyterians, there- 
fore, no compromise was possible. They asked for none, 
and could accept none. James I. has been severely blamed 
for his conduct of the Hampton Court Conference, and for 
the failure to comprehend all Protestants in one truly 
National Church. The criticism ignores the fact that in 1 604 
the dominant element in Puritanism was the Presbyterian, 
and that the claims of Geneva were as high and exclusive 
as those of Rome. 

As the seventeenth century went on the centre of gravity 
in Puritanism unquestionably shifted. Thanks in large 
measure to the victories of the New Model in the field, the 
Independent section pushed rapidly to the front. Known 
originally as Brownists or Separatists, more lately as Con- 
gregationalists, the fundamental conception of this group was 
the separate or independent organisation of each congrega- 
tion. They pushed the root principle involved in Protest- 
antism to its logical conclusion. A church, according to 
the definition of Robert Browne himself is " a companie 
or number of Christians or believers who by a willing 
covenant made with their God are under the government of 
God and Christ and keep His laws in one holy communion ". 
Theoretically there was nothing in their system inconsis- 
tent with religious liberty. And so long as they were in 
opposition they strongly favoured it. " The great shott of 
Cromwell and Vane," writes Baillie in 1644, "is to have 
a libertie for all religions, without any exceptions." 1 And 
again : " The most of their partie are fallen off to Ana- 
baptisms, Antinomianisms and Socinianisms ; the rest are 
cutted among themselves. One Mr. Williams has drawn a 

1 Letters, ii., 230. 



PROBLEM OF THE AGE— ECCLESIASTICAL 41 

great number after him, to a singular Independencie, deny- 
ing any true Church in the world, and will have every man 
to serve God by himself alone without any Church alone. . . . 
We hope, if once we had peace, by God's help, with the 
spirit of meekness mixed with a little justice, to gett the 
most of these erroneous spirits reduced." l " The humour 
of this people is very various, and inclinable to singularities, 
to differ from all the world, and one from another and 
shortly from themselves. No people," he adds despairingly, 
"had so much need of a Presbytrie." The spirit of meek- 
ness mixed with a little justice, as conceived by the Presby- 
terian, never got the much desired chance in England ; as 
conceived by the Independent it did. The history of the 
Protectorate, and still more the early history of New Eng- 
land, is a standing illustration of the difference between a 
party in opposition and a party in power. Despite the 
'wise warnings of Pastor Robinson, the Roger Williamses and 
Mrs. Hutchinsons got short shrift from the Puritan rulers in 
New England. Under the Puritan rule in old England 
there was, it is true, toleration for all Christians save " Papists 
and Prelatists ; " — for all, that is, except a large majority of 
the population. These considerations are not adduced with 
the object of imputing blame to this party or to that, but 
solely in order to illustrate the insuperable difficulties of the 
religious problem in the seventeenth century, and the entire 
futility of much of the criticism which, in a spirit far from 
historical, has been liberally expended upon the rulers of the 
time. 

An attempt has been made to define the position of 
Romans and Puritans; it remains to deal with that of the third 
great party, the Anglicans, or, as they were then termed, the 
Arminians. 

The Arminian movement contained many cross currents, 

' J ii., 191. 



42 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

and many apparently contradictory tendencies. On the one 
hand it represented an appeal to authority and tradition ; 
on the other an intellectual revolt against the narrow dogma- 
tism of Geneva. Hooker is a not less characteristic ex- 
ponent of its principles than Andrewes and Laud. It still 
commands, therefore, the respect both of the " rational theo- 
logian " and the Anglo-Catholic. Thus Principal Tulloch 
joins hands with Mr. H. O. Wakeman. " If the Church 
of England," writes the former, " had never produced any 
other writer of the same stamp, it might yet have boasted 
in Hooker one of the noblest and most rational intellects 
which ever enriched Christian literature or adorned a great 
cause. In combination of speculative, literary, imaginative, 
and spiritual qualities the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity stand 
as a polemical treatise, unrivalled. . . . Nowhere in the 
literature of philosophy has ethical and political speculation 
essayed a profounder and more comprehensive task, or 
sought to take a broader sweep ; and never has the harmony 
of the moral universe, and the interdependence and unity 
of man's spiritual and civil life, in their multiplied relations, 
been more finely conceived, or more impressively expounded. 
. . . Many writers are more acute, subtle, and forcible in 
detail. . . . None ever dwelt in a more lofty, serene, and 
truthful atmosphere, or raised himself more directly, by 
mere grandeur and largeness of conception, above all the 
petty and vulgar details which beset controversy even on 
the greatest subjects. The work remains an enduring 
monument of all the highest principles of Christian ration- 
alism — of that spirit and tendency of thought which every- 
where ascends from traditions or dogmas to principles, and 
which tests all questions, not with reference to external rules 
or authorities, but to the indestructible and enlightened in- 
stincts of the Christian consciousness." 

Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity may be regarded as the 



PROBLEM OF THE AGE— ECCLESIASTICAL 43 

first stage in the evolution of English Arminianism. 
Seeking for a basis on which Church government might 
philosophically rest, Hooker found it, as a modern writer 
has well said, " in the supremacy of law, explained by and 
founded on reason. . . . Andrewes is the bridge which 
separates and which unites Hooker and Laud. In all three 
is conspicuous the desire to defend the system of the Church 
by proving it to be at once Scriptural, reasonable, and 
historical. All three, therefore, acknowledge the claims of 
authority ; but to each authority comes in a somewhat 
different form. To Hooker it is the authority of the law 
of a Divinely guided reason, through which is discerned the 
mind of God working in the mind of man. . . . To Laud 
. . . authority comes in the form of the law of the society 
of which he is an officer. . . . To Andrewes . . . that 
authority appeals not so much in the crystalline form of 
canon or of rubric, as in the historical form of the society 
itself. . . . Hooker appealed to the head, Andrewes to the 
heart and Laud to the conduct of Englishmen." 1 

The supreme objects of the Arminian party, as represented 
by Archbishop Laud, were twofold : firstly, " a doctrinal 
clearance, the subjugation of the Calvinistic spirit in the 
Reformed Church of England " ; 2 and secondly, an em- 
phatic assertion of what appeared to them to be the essential 
doctrines and principles of the Anglican Church. Prominent 
among these were — the Divine origin and rights of episco- 
pacy ; the unbroken continuity of Episcopal succession from 
the times of the Apostles ; the necessity of a visible Church ; 
the doctrine of sacramental grace, and the propriety of 
order, decency and reverence in Christian worship. "The 
strength of Arminianism," as Mr. Wakeman insists, " was 
found in its vivid realisation of the continuous life of the 

1 H. O. Wakeman, The Church and the Puritans. 
2 Canon J. B. Mozley, Essays. 



44 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Church, in its fearless reliance upon history, and in its deep 
sympathy with man's moral nature. It was soon to show 
its weakness in the confusion which it brought about between 
spiritual and civil authority." 1 

In its relation to the problem of the seventeenth century, 
the significant feature of Arminianism is this alliance with 
the Stuart monarchy. The alliance was struck at the 
Hampton Court Conference, where, according to the Bis- 
hops, " His Majesty spoke by inspiration of the spirit of 
God ". Whatever the source of inspiration the practical 
result was significant. " No Bishop, no King " expressed 
a working policy ; the fortunes of the Stuart monarchy 
were indissolubly linked with those of the Anglican Episco- 
pate. The alliance was confirmed as the years went on. 
In 1619 Dr. Richard Montague, afterwards Bishop of Chi- 
chester, published a work with the fantastic title, A New 
Gag for an Old Goose, the object of which was to vindi- 
cate the " Catholicism " of the English Church. The House 
of Commons, in alarm, appealed to Archbishop Abbot to 
suppress the writer. Montague, nothing daunted, produced 
a second work, with the significant title, Apello Caesarem. 
His bold appeal to the King concluded with the words, " De- 
fend me with the sword and I will defend thee with the pen ". 
The Stuarts were not slow to respond to the appeal. The 
Commons might remonstrate, as in June, 1628, against the 
Arminian leaders ; they might deplore, as in February, 1629, 
" the subtle and pernicious spreading of the Arminian 
faction : whereby they have kindled such a fire of division 
in the very bowells of the State, as if not speedily extin- 
guished, it is of itself sufficient to ruin our religion ; " 2 but 
the Crown was steadfast to the alliance. Charles's significant 
reply was the promotion of prominent Arminians. Montague 
himself was made Bishop of Chichester and subsequently of 

1 H. O. Wakeman, op. cit. 2 Resolutions on Religion. 



PROBLEM OF THE AGE— ECCLESIASTICAL 45 

Norwich ; Buckeridge, Bishop of Ely ; John Howson, 
Bishop of Oxford, was preferred to Durham ; Neile to Win- 
chester ; Montaigne to York ; and Laud, to the dismay of 
the Puritans, was transferred from Bath and Wells to 
London (1628), and five years later to Canterbury. Any 
services rendered to the Prerogative by the Arminian 
preachers were indeed richly rewarded. Before Laud's 
preferment to Canterbury, Parliament had been silenced. 
Dissolved in 1629 it never met again until 1640. "The 
people of England," wrote the Puritan May, 1 "from that 
time were deprived of the hope of Parliaments; and all 
things so managed by public officers, as if never such a day 
of account were to come." 

It was during this Parliamentary interregnum that Falk- 
land attained to manhood, and first began to interest him- 
self in those problems which were already agitating and 
which were soon to distract his native land. For purposes 
of analysis I have thought it well to isolate the two main 
problems by which England was confronted in his day; all 
the more necessary is it to repeat the warning 2 that the two 
problems were in reality inextricably confused, and that but 
for their confusion there would have been no Civil War. 

1 The Clerk and Historian of the Long Parliament. 

2 Cf. supra, p. 26. 



BOOK II 
CHAPTER I 

PARENTAGE, BIRTH, EDUCATION AND MARRIAGE 

LUCIUS CARY, the second Viscount Falkland, was 
born, according to the common tradition, commemor- 
ated by Anthony Wood, at the famous old Cotswold town 
of Burford, in North Oxfordshire. 1 A similar tradition 
points to 1610 as the probable year of his birth, but neither 
as to place or time is there positive evidence. Like so many 
of the more distinguished of his contemporaries he came, on 
his father's side, of sound West-country stock, though in 
the late sixteenth century his grandfather migrated to 
Hertfordshire and established himself at Aldenham and 
Berkhamstead. Lucius was the eldest son of Sir Henry 
Cary, who was subsequently raised to the peerage as 
Viscount Falkland in the county of Fife, by his marriage 
with Elizabeth Tanfield. This first Viscount, of whom 
something must be said hereafter, was the eldest son of 
Sir Edward Cary, Knight of Aldenham, Herts, and of 
Catherine, the daughter of Sir Henry Knevet. The elder 
line of the Cary family remained faithful to the West 

lu Whether this Lucius was born at Burford (as some think he was) the 
public register of that place, which commences about the beginning of the 
reign of King James I., takes no notice of it : however, that he was mostly- 
nursed there by a wet and dry nurse, the ancients of that town, who re- 
member their names, have some years since informed me" (Wood, Athena, 
ii., 566). 

46 




ELIZABETH SYMONDES, AFTERWARDS LADY TANFIELD 

FROM A PICTURE IN THE POSSESSION OF VISCOUNT DILLON AT DITCHLEY PARK 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 47 

country, where it is still represented by the Carys of Ton- 
Abbey, in the county of Devon. 1 

On his mother's side Lucius may be described as an 
Oxfordshire man, for the first Lady Falkland was the only 
daughter and heiress of Sir Lawrence Tanfield, Chief Baron 
of the Exchequer, and Lord of Burford and Great Tew. 
Sir Lawrence's wife also had Oxfordshire connections. She 
was Elizabeth Symondes, daughter of Giles Symondes of 
Claye, Norfolk, and niece of Sir Henry Lee, K.G., of Ditch- 
ley, the famous ranger of Woodstock Park, who has been 
immortalised, by a convenient anachronism, in Sir Walter 
Scott's romance. The maternal grandparents of Falkland 
were at least distinct personalities, and as something of their 
personality descended to him a word must be said of them. 
Sir Lawrence Tanfield, the son of Robert Tanfield of Bur- 
ford, was a successful lawyer. He entered the Inner Temple 
in 1569, rose rapidly to eminence in his profession, and was 
elected to the House of Commons for the borough of New 
Woodstock in 1 584. He continued to sit for the borough in all 
the remaining Parliaments of the reign, and before the death of 
the Queen he had become a person of such consequence that 
James I. spent a night with him at Burford on his journey 
South in 1603. In the first Parliament of the new reign 
Tanfield represented the county of Oxford, but three years 
later was raised to the Bench, and in 1607 became Chief 
Baron of the Court of Exchequer. Both Sir Lawrence 
Tanfield and his wife were unmistakably persons of strong 
character, though opinions differ as to the interpretation 
to be placed on various episodes in their several careers- 
The impression given by the documentary evidence in the 
House of Lords 2 is, in both cases, decidedly unpleasant. 

1 The Carys, though long settled in Devonshire, were of Scotch ex- 
traction. Cf. Had. 2043, B.M. Class. Cat., Biog., iii., f. 162. 

2 Cf. Hist. MS3. Com., 3rd Report, 31-33 (House of Lords MSS.). 



48 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Lady Tanfield is roundly accused of having accepted bribes 
to influence her husband's decisions on the Bench, while, 
according to the same scandalous accuser, the Chief Baron 
himself was not inaccessible to similar inducements. Thus 
on 14th May, 1624, a petition was presented to the House 
of Lords by one Philip Smith, a prisoner in the Fleet, 
who asserted that in a case tried before the Chief Baron 
in which he was plaintiff, Lady Tanfield accepted .£20 
from him, and was promised another ^"20 " if Sir Lawrence 
would do justice". Sir Lawrence himself, however, re- 
ceived a piece of plate from the defendant in whose favour 
he gave judgment. In another case Lady Tanfield was 
said to have received £50 before the plaintiff could get a 
hearing. Smith further declared that he himself had been 
unjustly committed to prison by the Chief Baron for con- 
tempt of court. Sir Lawrence, on the other hand, filed an 
answer declaring the charges against his wife and himself 
to be ''utterly untrue," and "the Lords Committees for 
Petitions " ordered " that this scandalous petition shall be 
rejected ". 

But whatever be the truth as to the corruptibility of Sir 
Lawrence Tanfield as a judge, it is clear that he made him- 
self exceedingly unpopular among his humbler neighbours 
in North Oxfordshire. The rights of the case cannot now 
of course, be determined. It is more than possible that 
Tanfield merely incurred the odium so frequently attaching 
to a new man and an improving landlord. But it is obvious 
that he came to loggerheads with the old inhabitants. He 
appears to have bought the manor of Michael Tue (or 
Great Tew) in Oxfordshire about the year 16 14. Ten 
years later we find the "poor oppressed inhabitants" 
petitioning the House of Lords against their Lord. They 
alleged that they had " time out of mind enjoyed right of 
pasture over Cowhill pasture, containing about three hundred 




SIR LAURENCE TANFIELD 

AFTER AN ORIGINAL 1'ICTORE AT BURFORD PRIORV (aTHOW) 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 49 

acres," but that Sir Lawrence had " thrust out the inhabitants 
from the enjoyment of the said pasture, claiming it as his 
' waste ' ". The great lawyer was, of course, a formidable 
adversary where a question of manorial rights was concerned. 
" Not daring to contend with him they submitted to his 
mercy, but soon tasted the misery thereof, getting little or 
no compensation for their rights." But that was not all. 
" Sir Lawrence has enclosed seven parcels, the best feeding 
on their known common, and impounds any cattle straying 
therein. He has digged up their ' mearstones and marks,' 
which must breed dispute and enable him to get possession 
by little and little of lands on which some of the petitioners' 
ancestors have lived for 400 years." They complain, more- 
over, " that under their leases the tenants are granted great 
timber for repairs, but now are denied the timber, and yet 
fined for not repairing ; that Sir Lawrence threatens to root 
them out if they will not do his pleasure." Worse still ; he 
is not merely a bad neighbour, but a bad churchman. " He 
refuses to pay any duties to the Church for thirty-six yard 
lands of his own demesne." But if Sir Lawrence was a 
hard man " the lady his wife " would appear to have been a 
virago. She " saith that the inhabitants of Tu are more 
worthy to be ground to powder than to have any favour 
shewed them, and that she will play the devil amongst 
them ". Moreover : " Sir Lawrence and his lady said they 
should never improve their revenue till they had ' sunk ' John 
Hiron, one of their tenants ". They had " brought an action 
against him in the King's Bench for petitioning the Prince 
against them, and got a verdict by default, Hiron being un- 
able to retain counsel". The petitioners further complain 
"that Sir Lawrence has inclosed many pieces of Hiron's 
known lands, and thereby stopped his right of way to other 
of his lands, forcing him to go a mile round to them, and has 
impounded his cattle without cause, while Sir Lawrence's 
4 



50 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

cattle and swine are constantly straying. When Sir 
Lawrence bought the manor there were twenty-six plough 
teams, but now the inhabitants are so impoverished by his 
oppression that there are but twelve. He has taken the 
lead from the chancel of the Church to make pipes and 
gutters for his own house, has pulled down the churchyard 
wall, and thrown part of the churchyard into a pasture of 
his own. He will not give the allowance of straw which the 
inhabitants have had for many years from the parsonage 
barn for them to kneel upon in Church. At his Court's leet 
Sir Lawrence put his servants and unfit persons on juries, 
and has further oppressed the inhabitants by seizure of crops 
and horses under colour of legal proceedings." 

In answer to these detailed accusations of harshness and 
fraud, the Chief Baron made answer that the whole thing 
had been trumped up by John Hyrone (Hiron), " a man very 
malicious, of a violent spirit, and extremely audacious, dar- 
ing to affirm things untrue for truth, without fear of God ". 
Hiron had been " justly punished in law " for his " violent 
conduct and false accusations". It was true that there 
had been disputes, but they had all been settled " either by 
course of law or by arbitrament of friends ". 

In view of the fact that Falkland spent the happiest 
days of his life at Great Tew, the story of these quarrels 
between the Lord of the Manor and his tenants has an in- 
terest of its own. But its bearing upon the characters of the 
Chief Baron and his wife is not easy to determine. We 
should naturally be tempted to regard it simply as evidence 
of the bad blood stirred up among conservative and un- 
progressive villagers by a keen-witted lawyer determined to 
improve the estate he had recently acquired. The process 
of enclosing was, of course, always unpopular, and readily 
lent itself to accusations of harshness, if not of fraud. 
Particularly was this the case when the encloser was a " new 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 51 

man," and a lawyer. Unfortunately, however, the position 
of the " poor oppressed inhabitants of Great Tevve " does 
not stand alone. Another petition is presented to the House 
by one William Warmstrey who held " one third of the 
parsonage of Bleddington, Oxon." Warmstrey declared 
that Sir Lawrence Tanfield and his wife " having got pos- 
session refuse to quit or to pay any rent". This matter 
appears to have been amicably settled. Not so the petition 
of one John Andrews, who declared that " the Chief Baron 
had forced a sale of foreclosure of the rectory of Astall and 
Falbrook, Oxon., mortgaged by the petitioner, though the 
mortgagees had promised him further time for payment ; 
that Tanfield had then bought the land himself but had 
failed to pay a large part of the purchase money ". Andrews' 
version of the story was of course indignantly denied by the 
Chief Baron, but he found it apparently less easy to dispose 
of a charge of fraud brought against him by Sir Anthony 
Maine, a near kinsman of his own. The story, if true, is a 
warning against seeking the professional assistance of re- 
lations. Sir Anthony declared that he had consulted Tan- 
field in regard to a lawsuit in which he was engaged, and 
that Sir Lawrence " under colour of assisting him had got 
possession of the property in dispute ". The tenor of Tan- 
field's reply is not unfamiliar to students of law reports. 
According to his version he had gone out of his way to do 
his kinsman a kindness " to the neglect of his own business," 
and had been rewarded by accusations of fraud. 

Tanfield is not the only lawyer who has shown himself 
impatient of the stupidity of a layman — particularly if the 
layman happens to be a kinsman who has sought and 
obtained gratuitous professional advice. Nor, on the other 
hand, are the suspicions of laymen always without founda- 
tion. How far the Chief Baron and his lady were guilty of 
the many charges brought against them, it is impossible to 



52 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

say ; but that they were high-handed, tactless and overbear- 
ing persons is tolerably clear. Sir Lawrence died in 1625 
and Lady Tanfield four years later. 

The only surviving child of their marriage was a daughter, 
Elizabeth, who in 1600 had become the wife of Sir Henry 
Cary, afterwards the first Viscount Falkland. For reasons 
to be explained presently, Lady Falkland had quarrelled 
with her parents and had been disinherited. Consequently, 
on the death of Lady Tanfield, the whole of the Oxfordshire 
estates, said by Clarendon to have been worth some two 
thousand a year, passed by settlement to Lucius Cary. 

Elizabeth Tanfield, as from her parentage we should 
expect, was a woman of strong character and remarkable 
ability. Her memory ha^> been preserved mainly perhaps 
owing to the fact that she became, early in her married life, 
a convert to Roman Catholicism ; x but it is by no means 
unworthy of record on other grounds. She was born at 
Burford in 1585, and there she spent her childhood until, 
at the age of fifteen, she was married to Sir Henry Cary. 
From babyhood she seems to have been addicted to learn- 
ing, especially to the study of languages. " When she was 
but four or five years old," so runs the Life, " they put her 
to learn French, which she did about five weeks, and, not 
profiting at all gave it over: after, of herself, without a 
teacher, whilst she was a child she learned French, Spanish 
and Italian ; . . . she learned Latin in the same manner. 
. . . Hebrew she likewise about the same time learned with 
very little teaching. . . . She then learned also of a Tran- 

1 A life of Elizabeth Tanfield, the first Lady Falkland, was printed in 1861 
from a MS. in the Archives of the Department of the North in Lille, having 
been removed thither from the Convent of the English Benedictine Nuns 
at Cambray. It was written by one of her four daughters, and corrected by 
her son, Patrick Cary. It has been modernised — but uncritically — by Lady 
Georgiana Fullerton. 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 53 

sylvanian his language; but never finding any use of it, 
forgot it entirely." 

Of her childhood there are many stories recorded by 
her daughter illustrative of her shrewd wit, her rare acumen, 
and above all her devotion to the pursuit of learning. " She 
frequently," says her daughter, " read all night, so as her 
mother was fain to forbid her servants to let her have 
candles ; which command they turned to their own profit, 
and let themselves be hired by her to let her have them, 
selling them to her at half a crown a piece, so was she bent 
to reading ; and she not having money so free, was to owe 
it to them." The sequel proves not only her zeal but her 
improvidence and her honesty. "In this fashion was she in 
debt ;£ioo before she was twelve years old, which with two 
hundred more for the little bargains and promises she paid on 
her wedding day." 1 She failed to develop habits of business 
as the years went on. During her husband's rule in Ireland 
she interested herself greatly in the foundation of industrial 
schools in Dublin. Nothing that kindly zeal could do to 
ensure their success was lacking, but it is none the less an 
indisputable fact that they proved a failure. Lady Falkland, 
in retrospect, attributed the failure to the baleful Protestant 
influences brought to bear upon the children. Her filial bio- 
graphers, though not less ardent in their Catholicism than their 
mother, suggest another possible reason. " Others thought it 
rather that she was better at contriving than executing, and 
that too many things were undertaken at the very first, and 
that she was fain (having little choice) to employ either those 
that had little skill in the matters they dealt in, or less 
honesty ; and so she was extremely cozened, which she was 
most easily, though she were not a little suspicious in her 
nature, but chiefly the ill order she took for paying money 

1 Life, p. 7. 



54 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

in this (as in all other occasions) having the worst memory 
in such things in the world ; and wholly trusting to it (or 
them she dealt with), and never keeping any account of what 
she did, she was most subject to pay the same things often 
(as she hath had it confessed to her by some that they have 
in a small matter made her pay them the same thing five 
times in five days) neither would she suffer herself to be 
undeceived by them that stood by and saw her do it fre- 
quently, rather suspecting they said it out of dislike of her 
designs and to divert her from them." In his devotion to 
learning, in his philanthropy, in his probity, and in his gener- 
ous superiority to monetary considerations, as, indeed, in 
much else, Lucius was essentially his mother's son. 

In the year 1600, when a girl of fifteen, Elizabeth Tan- 
field was married by her parents to a man whom she scarcely 
knew, and whom for some years after her marriage she 
rarely met. 

Henry Cary was a man of considerable distinction, but 
of unequal fortune. A soldier, a courtier, a pro-consul and 
a poet, he played in his life many parts, and all of them 
with tolerable but incomplete success. At the age of six- 
teen he was sent, according to that incomparable gossip 
Anthony Wood, to Exeter College, Oxford, 1 where " by the 
help of a good tutor he became a most accomplished 
gentleman. 'Tis said (in the Worthies of England by 
Thomas Fuller) that during his stay in the University of 
Oxford his chamber was the rendezvous of all the eminent 

1 Mr. Beaven has raised a doubt as to the accuracy of Wood's statement. 
Henry Carey (or Cary), son of Sir Robert, and afterwards second Earl of 
Monmouth, was undoubtedly at Exeter College, having matriculated 7th 
June, 1611. The Rector of Exeter, who has kindly made search, informs me 
that there is no documentary evidence of Henry Cary, first Lord Falkland, 
having been at Exeter, but he points out that owing to the state of the 
College books this affords no presumption against the truth of Wood's 
statement, and it is noteworthy that both Henry Carys sent sons to Exeter. 




ELIZABETH TANFIELD, WIFE OF HENRY, FIRST VISCOUNT FALKLAND 

AFTER A PORTRAIT BY VAN SOMER 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 55 

wits, divines, philosophers, historians and politicians of that 
time." As to the truth of Fuller's story, Anthony Wood 
hints a little gentle scepticism, " seeing Henry was then a 
young man and not graduated ". Most probably, as the 
annalist suggests, the story is due to a confusion between 
Henry Cary and his more distinguished son, between the 
undergraduate's chamber at Exeter and the " College in a 
purer air" at Great Tew. The confusion would be the 
likelier to arise if it be the fact, as stated by Wood, that 
Lucius Cary " retired several times to, and took commons 
in Exeter College : while his brother, Lorenzo, studied there 
in 1628 and after". On leaving Oxford, Henry Cary 
served for a time in France and the Low Countries where 
he was taken prisoner, having in the meantime married 
Elizabeth Tanfield. From Ben Jonson's often-quoted lines 
it would seem that Sir Henry Cary was as conspicuous for 
rash courage in the field as his ill-fated son : — 

That neither fame nor love might wanting be 
To greatness, Cary, I sing that and thee, 
Whose house, if it no other had, 
In only thee might be both great and glad : 
Who to upbraid the sloth of this our time 
Dost valour make, almost if not a crime. 

The son, less fortunate than the father, has not escaped, as 
we have seen, the actual imputation of suicidal crime. On 
his return to England Cary's promotion was rapid. Created 
a Knight of the Bath in 1608, 1 he filled several household 

1 The statement in the text that Falkland was a K.B. follows D.N.B., 
and, except for the date (which is clearly wrong), most other authorities ; but 
Mr. Beaven has convinced me that it is erroneous. There was no creation 
of K.B.'s in 1608. The only creations under James I. were (i) at the 
coronation (July, 1603); (ii) when Prince Charles was created Duke of 
York (January, i6of) and (iii) and (iv) when Prince Henry (June, 1610) 
and Prince Charles (November, 16 16) were successively created Prince of 
Wales. No Cary was included in the list of K.B.'s on either of the first 
two occasions ; Henry Carey (afterwards first Earl of Dover) was in that of 



56 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

offices, was sworn a member of the Privy Council in 1617, 
and three years later was created Viscount Falkland in the 
county of Fife in the Peerage of Scotland. A West 
countryman by descent, his Scotch peerage was due to a 
settled policy on the part of the first two Stuarts to bring 
England and Scotland into closer union by the bestowal of 
Scotch titles upon Englishmen. In 1622 Lord Falkland, 
through the favour, it is said, of George Villiers, afterwards 
Duke of Buckingham, was appointed Lord Deputy of Ire- 
land. In the same year he took up his residence in Dublin, 
accompanied by his wife and children. 

Lucius was at this time a boy of twelve. He had lived 
till now almost continuously with his grandparents at 
Burford and Great Tew, and can have known little either of 
his father or his mother. To both his parents, however, he 
proved himself a dutiful, and even a devoted son. Soon 
after his arrival in Dublin, Lucius was sent to Trinity 
College where he took his degree, as a boy of fifteen, in 

1610, and Henry Carey (afterwards second Earl of Monmouth) in that of 
1616. Henry Cary, first Lord Falkland, was not a K.B. at all. Doyle in 
his Official Baronage gives the correct identification, and nearly all 
authorities agree as to the Knight of 1610 being the future Lord Dover. 
But Dr. Shaw (Book of Knights) and G. E. C. (Mr. Cokayne) in his Com- 
plete Peerage, and Haydn (Book of Dignities) assign the 1616 Knighthood 
to Falkland. But (i) Falkland is described as Sir Henry Cary, Knight, in 
the will of his uncle Sir W. Cary (dated 17th December, 1609) ; and similarly 
(ii) in the register of baptism (at Great Berkhamsted) of his son Lorenzo 
(5th October, 1613) ; (iii) the Henry Cary knighted in 1610 is described in 
Cal. S. P. Dom. (1610) as Mr. Carey; and (iv) the K.B.'s made on these 
occasions were almost invariably young sons of noble houses, and Falk- 
land's age precludes the probability of his being included either in the 1610 
or 1616 batch. Finally Mr. Beaven has on my behalf most kindly discussed 
the question with Dr. W. A. Shaw, Mr. Cokayne and Mr. Duncombe Pink, 
and each of these high authorities has not only contributed some part of 
the above evidence but entirely acquiesces in the conclusion at which we had 
arrived, though it is contrary to that which the two first-named originally 
adopted in their respective publications. 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 57 

1625. It is stated by Lady Theresa Lewis that after 
having quitted Trinity College, "he became a student at 
St. John's College, Oxford ", 1 For this statement there is 
no ascertainable warrant ; but in a letter addressed in 
1642 by Falkland to Dr. Beale, 2 the head of St. John's 
College, Cambridge, he speaks of himself as " a St. John's 
man," and desires Dr. Beale to assure the College that he 
will never forget himself " to be a member of their body". 
His connection with St. John's College, Cambridge, ap- 
pears, however, to have been merely nominal ; his name 
having been entered there, together with that of his 
brother, Lorenzo, before his father's appointment to Ireland 
in 1622. Enveloped as the whole question is in some 
obscurity, there can be little reasonable doubt that such 
formal education as Lucius obtained was derived from 
Trinity College, Dublin. Nor was it inconsiderable. " He 
learned," says Clarendon, " all those exercises and langua- 
ges better than most men do in more celebrated places: 
insomuch as when he came into England, which was when 
he was about the age of eighteen years, he was not only 
master of the Latin tongue and had read all the poets and 
other of the best authors, with notable judgment for that 
age, but he understood, and spake, and writ French, as if 
he had spent many years in France." 3 

At Trinity he probably imbibed a good deal besides a 
knowledge of Latin and French. Ussher 4 had indeed just 
vacated the Professorship of Divinity, significantly termed 
at Dublin the Professorship of Theological Controversy, but 
the strong Protestant tone which he imparted to the college 

1 Clarendon Gallery, i., 4. 

2 To make confusion worse confounded it appears that Dr. Beale was 
himself an Oxford man. 

3 Life, i., 42, 43. 

4 Mr. Gardiner (ap. D.N.B.), obviously following Tulloch, is guilty of 
one of his rare inaccuracies in speaking of Ussher as Provost during a part of 



58 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

long survived. But if the atmosphere breathed by Lucius at 
college was unmistakably Puritan, that which surrounded him 
in the vice-regal lodge was the reverse. In spite of the cares 
of a rapidly increasing family, Lady Falkland contrived to 
pursue her studies with unremitting diligence. She had 
long since become deeply interested in the works of the 
Early Fathers, with the result (according to her daughter) 
that her belief in the Protestant faith was shattered. Ac- 
cording to the Protestant sources she was " one of the 
victims of the Jesuit missionaries who then infested Eng- 
land ". But whether as a result of external suasion or of 
independent Patristic studies, or of both, Lady Falkland 
was converted to Roman Catholicism about 1605, though 
the fact was not avowed until 1625. A woman of deep 
religious feeling she was naturally anxious about the educa- 
tion of her children ; and her daughter draws a touching 
picture of the mother's care in imparting to them the truths 
of religion and morality without " the particular Protestant 
doctrines of the truth of which she was little satisfied". 
So successful was she in the latter respect that of her eight 
children (of whom we have record) two sons became Roman 
Catholics and four daughters took the veil. The two eldest 
sons fell in battle. Of all her children Lucius was least in- 
fluenced by her special ecclesiastical views, but, even on hostile 
evidence, he was the most tenderly devoted to his mother. 

In 1625 Lady Falkland avowed her conversion, quarrelled 
with her husband and her parents, and finally left Dublin. 
For some years she lived in poverty in London. Utterly 

Cary's residence. Archbishop Ussher was never Provost. He was Pro- 
fessor of Divinity, 1607-21, but resigned on his appointment to the See 
of Meath, gth May, 1621. His cousin, Dr. Robert Ussher, became Provost 
in 1629. Gardiner, in his turn, has probably misled Montagu Burrows (ap. 
Ditchfield, Memorials of Oxfordshire), who speaks of Falkland's education 
"under the Provostship of Ussher afterwards Archbishop". Cf. J. W. 
Stubbs, Hist. Univ. Dubl., 48, 346. 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 59 

reckless of money she had mortgaged her marriage settle- 
ments to relieve her husband's perpetual embarrassments, 
and on her separation from him found herself practically 
without means. 1 Lord Falkland was ordered by the Council 
to pay her an alimony of ,£500 a year, but refused — 
probably from sheer inability — to pay such a sum, and her 
mother firmly declined to receive her at Burford. She 
was subsequently reconciled to her husband, through the 
mediation of Queen Henrietta Maria, but never lived with 
him again. From her son Lucius, after he came into his 
inheritance, she received many tokens of solicitude and 
devotion : but not for some time does he appear to have 
become aware of the extent of her necessities. Lady 
Georgiana Fullerton — a hostile witness as regards Lucius 
— is constrained to admit his exemplary conduct in this 
respect. "Lord Falkland," she writes, "had ever been a 
more than ordinarily good son and brother, and his wife, 
far from hindering, encouraged him in the performance of 
his filial duties. He accordingly hastened to provide means 
to settle his mother's affairs." * 2 

After the death of the elder Lord Falkland, Lucius 
carried off his three youngest sisters, Anne, Lucy and Mary, 
to live with him at Great Tew " to be again tormented," 
adds the Catholic historian, "but by the grace of God not 
hurt, by Mr. Chillingworth. . . ." Whatever his motive Falk- 
land was the only one of their relatives and friends who 
would receive them whilst they remained Catholics. Besides 
his three sisters, Falkland received his two younger brothers, 
Patrick and Placid, into his home. But the Dowager Lady 
Falkland, becoming alarmed for their faith, spirited the boys 

1 With scant gratitude Lord Falkland wrote to Lord Conway : " I con- 
ceive women to be no fit solicitors of state affairs ; for though it sometimes 
happens that they have good wits, it then commonly falls out that they have 
overbusy natures withal ". 

2 Life, 194. 



60 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

away from Great Tew. Withdrawn from their brother's 
guardianship and from the "baleful influence" of Chilling- 
worth, they were smuggled out of the country by their 
mother, and brought up in a Catholic Seminary abroad. 
This high-handed proceeding brought Lady Falkland into 
serious conflict with the Privy Council, and led, not unnatur- 
ally, to an estrangement between herself and her eldest son. 
Once more she fell upon evil days, in which she was sus- 
tained solely by her indomitable pluck, and her devotion to 
the faith she had adopted. Her proud spirit could not bear 
the thought of an appeal to her one unregenerate child. 
But as soon as Falkland heard of his mother's plight, he 
hastened to render her all the assistance in his power. 
"Very near her death,'' writes his sister, "her eldest son 
— then newly informed how it was (she having foreborne 
herself to let him know her extremity for fear to oppress 
him ; and for that she had by her former doing — which was 
not like to be very pleasing to him, could he have helped it 
— seemed more to take herself out of his care) — came to 
town (with his wife) on purpose to remedy it, which he did 
for what appeared at the present, but she (out of the much 
sense she had of his decreasing estate and great charge), did 
not make known to him what was farther necessary, so as 
he left her much as he found her, till being farther advertized 
by others, he took order with his mother-in-law, intreating 
her to see all provided for her that she should need, which 
she did, being most kindly careful of her." 1 But the end 
was near, and in 1639 Elizabeth, Lady Falkland, reached 
the close of her tempestuous but strangely interesting life. 
She had failed to effect the darling wish of her heart, the 
conversion to her own faith of her eldest son, but her in- 
fluence upon him was unquestionably lasting and deep. 
Like most men who attain to eminence he was emphati- 

1 Life, in. 




HENRY CARY, FIRST VISCOUNT FALKLAND 

FROM A PICTURE HY VAN SOMER, IN THE POSSESSION OF VISCOUNT FALKLAND 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 61 

cally his mother's son. From her he derived his original 
bias towards theological speculation, and from her his 
reverent attitude towards the questions it involved. With 
what ardour he pursued the quest the subsequent pages will 
disclose. 

To his father, Lucius was much less obviously indebted, 
though a close observer may discern (to adapt Nathaniel 
Hawthorne's striking phrase) strong traits of the father's 
nature intertwined with the character of the son. From 
him Lucius undoubtedly inherited a certain impetuosity of 
temper, undaunted physical courage, and perhaps some 
inclination towards the life of letters. Happily, however, 
the more serious qualities of his mother profoundly modified 
the coarser impulses derived from his father. Thus what 
in the father was an almost criminal carelessness in regard 
to money was transmuted into the open-handed but discern- 
ing generosity which was one of the many lovable character- 
istics of the son. Moreover, the first Viscount's title to 
literary fame rests on a narrow and uncertain basis. The 
following elegiac lines on the Countess of Huntingdon are 
attributed by at least one critic of repute to the father, but 
there is hardly a shadow of doubt that they were written by 
the son. 1 

AN EPITAPH UPON THE EXCELLENT COUNTESS OF 
HUNTINGDON 
The cheife perfections of both sexes joyn'd, 
With neither's vice nor vanity combind. 
Of this our age the wonder, loue and care, 
The example of the following, and dispaire. 
Such beauty, that from all hearts loue must flow 
Such maiesty, that none durst tell her so. 

1 1 am not aware that the question of the authorship of these lines has 
ever been critically discussed, though they have been uncritically assigned 
by critics of repute to two different men. Dr. Grosart includes them in his 
Collection of Lucius Cary's poems, and Mr. Courthope quotes them (Hist, 
of Eng. Poetry, iii., 293) as a "not unfavourable specimen of his style". 



62 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

A wisdome of so large and potent sway, 
Rome's Senate might have wisht, her conclaue may. 
Which did to earthly thoughts so seldome bow, 
Aliue she scarce was lesse in heaven, then now. 
So voyd of the least pride, to her alone 
These radiant excellencies seem'd unknowne. 
Such once there was : but let thy greife appeare, 
Reader, there is not : Huntingdon lies here. 
By him who saies what he saw. 

Falkland 

In the " Harleian Miscellany" is printed an essay said to 
have been " found among the papers of and (supposed to be) 
writ by the Right Honourable Henry Viscount Falkland, 
sometime Lord Deputy of Ireland ". The essay which is of 
considerable length and pretensions is entitled, " The History 
of the most unfortunate Prince King Edward the Second ; 
with choice political observations on him and his unhappy 
favourites, Gaveston and Spencer; containing several rare 
passages of those times, not found in other historians". 
Lucius Cary, therefore, may be said to have been born free 
of the craft of literature, by hereditary descent. It was, ac- 
cording to the editor of the " Miscellany," the elder Falkland's 

The article in D.N.B. on the elder Falkland attributes the lines to him on 
the authority of Wilford's Memorials. But even if Wilford could be regarded 
as in any sense an "authority," I am unable to perceive that he lends any 
support to this theory of the authorship of the lines. He simply prints them 
(Appendix XV.) with the signature " Falkland ". Apart from the fact that 
the elder Falkland is not known to have written poetry at all, the external 
evidence is conclusively in favour (as both Mr. Courthope and Mr. C. H. 
Firth, with whom I have discussed the question, point out) of the generally 
received view. The lines were originally prefixed to a sermon preached at 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch on gth February, 1633 (i.e., 1634 in modern style), and 
published in 1635. The elder Falkland died in September, 1633, i.e., about 
five months before the lady died, and some two years before the lines were 
published. The poem expresses the feelings of " him who saies what he 
saw ". If the elder Falkland saw what he says it must have been in prophetic 
vision. Horace Walpole (Royal and Noble Authors) also attributes to the 
first Viscount " an epitaph (not bad) on Elizabeth, Countess of Hunting- 
don," but again on the authority of Wilford. 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 63 

"extraordinary parts," and not, as suggested above, the favour 
of Buckingham, which " got him such an esteem with King 
James the First that he thought him a person fitly qualified 
to be Lord Deputy of Ireland, the Government of which place 
required at that time a man of more than ordinary abilities ". 
As Lord Deputy, Falkland comes almost midway be- 
tween the two ablest rulers Ireland ever had — -Sir Arthur 
Chichester and Thomas Wentworth, Lord Strafford. His 
fame and record may perhaps have suffered from inevitable 
if unconscious comparison. But he certainly acquired little 
glory from the performance of a thankless office. His 
tenure extended from 1622 to 1629, during which he was 
concerned almost exclusively with three questions. The 
ecclesiastical problem, the agrarian problem and the army 
problem may be said, indeed, to constitute, together with 
plantations, confiscations and rebellions, the history of Ire- 
land in the seventeenth century. Lord Falkland, unlike 
his wife, was a strong Protestant, and urged on by a sermon 
of Ussher, preached on the text, " He beareth not the sword 
in vain," he began his rule with a proclamation for the 
banishment of priests. The Deputy's zeal outran the dis- 
cretion of the Home Government ; delicate negotiations 
were pending in regard to the Spanish marriage, and Falk- 
land was bidden to tread more warily in ecclesiastical affairs 
in Ireland. A not less difficult problem was that of the 
army. A considerable standing army was regarded — 
probably with justice — as essential to English rule in Ire- 
land. But no funds could be obtained from England, and 
none could be squeezed out of Ireland for the payment of 
the troops. There is no more serious menace either to 
social order or to discipline (as Strafford was soon to 
discover) than an unpaid army living at free quarters. Mr. 
Gardiner complains that the tone of Falkland's despatches 
to the Home Government was "querulous ". Well it might 



64 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

be, since he was bidden to make bricks without straw, and 
to maintain order among a hostile people with a mutinous 
army. 

It was in order to get money for the payment of the 
army that recourse was had to the expedient with which 
Falkland's name is specially associated in Irish history. The 
Government resolved to make concessions on the two burn- 
ing questions of the hour, that of the land and of religion. 
These concessions were embodied in instruments known as 
the Graces. By one, a new oath of allegiance, acceptable to 
the Catholics, was substituted for the obnoxious oath of 
supremacy. By another, a sixty years' possessory title was 
to be recognised as a bar to all claims to land on the part of 
the Crown. The plantations in Ulster and Wexford had 
rilled every landowner and indeed every peasant in Ireland 
with alarm for the safety of his land ; the recognition, there- 
fore, of a comparatively short title was to all classes, but 
especially to the higher, a boon unspeakable. But for the 
Graces Falkland got little credit either in Ireland or in 
England. In Ireland they were regarded, not unjustly, as 
concessions wrung from the necessities of Government; in 
England they were not regarded at all. The Deputy be- 
came involved in an unfortunate quarrel with his Chancellor, 
Lord Loftus of Ely, and with other members of the Irish 
Council ; a blow aimed at the Byrnes of Wicklow, and in- 
tended to prepare the way for a plantation in that fair 
county, hopelessly miscarried ; the authority of the 
Deputy was virtually set aside, and in 1629 he was recalled. 1 
The government of Ireland passed, to the infinite material 
advantage of the dependency, into the strong hands of Went- 

1 A sequel to the disputes between Falkland and the Irish gentry is to be 
found in a case which came before the Star Chamber in 1631. Falkland 
there accused Lord Mountnorris, Sir Arthur Savage and others of having 
"joined and combined together" to lay a " grievous scandall upon the Lord 
Viscount Falkland and his Government and to impoyson his credit and 




LADY TAN FIELD 

AFTER AN ORIGINAL PICTURE AT BURFORD PRIORY (ATHOW) 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 65 

worth. That Falkland's rule in Ireland was conspicuously 
successful not even an apologist will maintain. He was 
lacking both in firmness and tact, and his policy was oppor- 
tunist to a degree unusual even in Ireland. But he had 
small chance of earning distinction. Apart from the pressure 
of those chronic difficulties with which he made no serious 
and sustained effort to cope, he was ill supported from 
home, and was virtually deprived of the only material 
resource upon which English Deputies could rely. 

The circumstances of his recall were rendered still further 
bitter to the disappointed Deputy by an incident affecting 
his son. It is apparently on the strength of this incident 
that Anthony Wood, in his irresponsible chatter, speaks of 
Lucius as being a " wild youth " when " carried off by his 
father into Ireland ". The " wild youth " was then a boy 
of twelve, and the incident which furnishes the supposed 
ground for a charge of wildness occurred seven years after- 
wards ! It is, however, characteristic of Lucius's impulsive 
temperament, and on that account deserves to be recalled. 
By the foolish partiality of his father, Lucius, though only 
nineteen, had been entrusted with the command of a company. 
On Falkland's departure Lucius was dismissed by the Lords 
Justices, and the command was transferred to Sir Francis 
Willoughby. Thereupon, Lucius, deeming it a slight to his 
father as well as to himself, challenged Willoughby to a 
duel. " I doe confesse youe a brave gentleman," he writes, 
" (and for myne owne sake I would not but have my adver- 
sary soe), but I knowe noe reason why, therfore, youe 
showld have my company, any more then why therfore 
you showld have my breeches, which yf every brave man 

reputation with the Duke [of Buckingham] , and with the King and the rest 
of the Nobles here and tending also to the King's dishonour ". Cf. " Cases in 
the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission," ed. Gardiner (Camden 
Society, 1886). 

5 



66 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

showld have, I should be fayne shortly toe begg in trowses. 
I dowght not but youe will give me satisfaction with your 
sworde, of which yf you will send me the lengthe, with tyme 
and place, youe shalbe sure (accordingly toe the appoint- 
ment) toe meete Lucius Cary." 

To this impetuous epistle Willoughby replied in a strain 
which he truly describes as " boath modest and just ". " It 
was no sute of myne, " he declares, " to deprive youe of 
anything you possest, but toe the contrary. I desired that 
neyther your honourable fathers nor your's, nor Sir Charles 
Cootses companyes might be transferred to me." But the 
soft answer did not avail to turn away wrath, and Sir 
Lucius (as in 1626 he had become) found himself committed, 
by order of the Privy Council, to the custody of the warden 
of the Fleet. There he cooled his heels and his temper for 
ten days, at the end of which he was released on his father's 
abject petition to the King. 1 Wood asserts, apparently 
with the object of accounting for his rapid " reformation," 
that after leaving Trinity his father sent him " to travel 
under the tutelage and discretion of a discreet person who 
making a very great reformation in him as to life, manners 
and learning Lucius had ever after a great respect and 
veneration". 2 A foreign tour after the early completion 
of the university course would be quite in accord with the 
custom of the age, but I find no corroboration of Wood's 
statement, and if the tour did take place it must have been 
before the incident recorded above. 

Meanwhile, in 1629, on the death of Lady Tanfield, 
Lucius had come into the fair inheritance settled upon him 
by his grandfather. " About the time that he was nineteen 
years of age," says Clarendon, " all the land, with two very 
good houses excellently furnished (worth above ^2,000 per 

1 Cf. letter in Cabala, reprinted by Lewis, Appendix A. 
2 ii., 5 66. 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 67 

annum) in a most pleasant country, and the two most 
pleasant places in that country, with a very plentiful personal 
estate, fell into his hands and possession and to his entire 
disposal." 

Shortly after his succession (conjecturally in 163 1) "he 
committed a fault against his father in marrying a young 
lady whom he passionately loved, without any considerable 
portion, which exceedingly offended him : and disappointed 
all his reasonable hopes and expectations of redeeming and 
repairing his own broken fortune and desperate hopes in 
court by some advantageous marriage of his son, about 
which he had then some probable treaty." l Sir Lucius Cary's 
bride was Letice Morison, daughter of Sir Richard Morison 
of Tooley Park, Leicestershire. She was the sister of his 
dearest friend, Sir Henry Morison, and despite her dis- 
pleasing lack of fortune proved worthy of the passionate 
attachment of her chivalrous lover. 

Henry Morison died shortly before his sister's marriage, 
and it was to commemorate " the immortal memory and 
friendship of that noble pair, Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry 
Morison " that Ben Jonson wrote the exquisite verses of 
his Pindaric Ode. Some of the more biographical demand 
quotation : — 

THE ANTISTROPHE, OR COUNTER-TURN 

Alas ! but Morison fell young : 
He never fell, — thou fall'st, my tongue. 
He stood a soldier to the last right end, 
A perfect patriot, and a noble friend ; 
But most, a virtuous son. 
All offices were done 

By him, so ample, full, and round, 

In weight, in measure, number, sound, 
As, though his age imperfect might appear, 
His life was of humanity the sphere. 

1 Li fe, >-, 43. 44- 



68 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

THE EPODE, OR STAND 
Go now, and tell out days summed up with fears, 

And make them years ; 
Produce thy mass of miseries on the stage, 
To swell thine age ; 
Repeat of things a throng, 
To show thou hast been long, 
Not liv'd ; for life doth her great actions spell, 
By what was done and wrought 
In season, and so brought 
To light : her measures are, how well 
Each syllabe snswer'd, and was form'd, how fair ; 
These make the lines of life, and that's her air ! 

III. 
THE STROPHE, OR TURN 
It is not growing like a tree 
In bulk, doth make men better be ; 
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear : 
A lily of a day 
Is fairer far in May, 
Although it fall and die that night ; 
It was the plant and flower of light. 
In small proportions we just beauties see ; 
And in short measures, life may perfect be. 

THE ANTISTROPHE, OR COUNTER-TURN 
Call, noble Lucius, then for wine, 
And let thy looks with gladness shine : 
Accept this garland, plant it on thy head, 
And think, nay know, thy Morison's not dead. 
He leap'd the present age, 
Possest with holy rage 

To see that bright eternal day ; 

Of which we priests and poets say 
Such truths, as we expect for happy men ; 
And there he lives with memory and Ben. 

THE EPODE, OR STAND 
Jonson, who sung this of him, ere he went, 

Himself, to rest, 
Or taste a part of that full joy he meant 

To have exprest. 
In this bright Asterism ! — 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 69 

Where it were friendship's schism, 

Were not his Lucius long with us to tarry, 
To separate these twi- 
Lights, the Dioscuri ; 
And keep the one half from his Harry. 
But fate doth so alternate the design, 
Whilst that in heaven, this light on earth must shine. 

IV. 
THE STROPHE, OR TURN 
And shine as you exalted are ; 
Two names of friendship, but one star : 
Of hearts the union, and those not by chance 
Made, or indenture, or leased out t'advance 
The profits for a time. 
No pleasures vain did chime, 
Of rymes, or riots, at your feasts, 
Orgies of drink, of greatness and of good, 
That knits brave minds and manners, more than blood. 

THE ANTISTROPHE, OR COUNTER-TURN 

This made you first know the why 

You liked, then after, to apply 
That liking ; and approach so one the t'other 
Till either grew a portion of the other : 
Each styled by his end, 
The copy of his friend. 

You liv'd to be the great sir-names, 

And titles, by which all made claims 
Unto the virtue : nothing perfect done, 
But as a Cary, or a Morison. 

THE EPODE, OR STAND 
And such a force the fair example had, 

As they that saw 
The good, and durst not practise it, were glad 
That such a law 
Was left yet to mankind ; 
Where they might read and find 
Friendship, indeed, was written not in words ; 
And with the heart, nor pen, 
Of two so early men, 
Whose lines her rolls were, and records : 
Who, ere the first down bloomed on the chin, 
Had sow'd these fruits, and got the harvest in. 



70 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Clarendon's words * appear to refer to some specific " ad- 
vantageous marriage" for which Lord Falkland was in 
treaty, and Lady Theresa Lewis may be right in supposing 
that the proposed marriage in question was one which 
would have been unmistakably advantageous to the elder 
Falkland by uniting his house and fortunes with those of 
Richard Weston, Earl of Portland, at that time Lord 
Treasurer. " The truth is," wrote Sir George Gresley to a 
friend, " the Lord of Falkland and the Lord Treasurer are to 
match two of their children together and thereupon the Lord 
Falkland to continue Lord Deputy." 2 But the negotiation 
with Weston was not the first nor the last of the elder 
Falkland's attempts to get money or advantage for himself 
out of his son's marriage. The following extract from the 
private papers of the Earl of Cork at Lismore suggests that 
the Lord Deputy had long been pursuing the quest for a 
highly-dowered bride with some zeal : — 

" January, 1623. This daie the lo viscount ffalkland lo 
deputie of Irelande sent me by Sir Lawrence parsons his 
Ma ts gracious letters desiring me that the marriadg in treaty 
between the L deputie and me, for his son and heir for one 
of my daughters might be concluded. And my Lo Carew 
also wrott unto me effectually persuading me therunto ; 
whervppon I offered his LoP, with my thirde daughter the 
La Lettice Boyle, eight thowsand pounds ster :, to be paid in 
London within two yeares, so as his LoP would procure 
the L cheefe Barron Tanffield his Ladies ffather to pass over 
his estate vppon Lucius Carye, and theires males of his 
boddie, to be begotten on my said daughter, and to have 
my L Deputy conveigh to his Son and theires male of them 
5,000^ Lands per anno in Englande, and to mak my 
daughter for her Joincture a good house fully furneshed with 
a thowsand pounds Lands per ann° in Englande." 3 

1 Supra, p 67. 2 Lewis, i., 8. 

3 Lismore Papers, ed. Grosart, vol. ii., 118. The same papers bear witness 




HENRY GARY, FIRST VISCOUNT FALKLAND 

FROM AN ENGRAVING Al THE BODLEIAN AFTER VAN SOMER 



PARENTAGE, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE 71 

Sir Lucius was terribly distressed by his father's anger 
and disappointment. " Very conscious to himself of his 
offence and transgression, and the consequence of it, though 
he could not repent, having married a lady of a most extra- 
ordinary wit and judgment, and of the most signal virtue 
and exemplary life that the age produced, and who brought 
him many hopeful children in which he took great delight ; 
yet he confessed it with the most sincere and dutiful applica- 
tions to his father for his pardon that could be made." 1 
With characteristically impulsive generosity, Lucius then 
offered to make over the whole of his property to his father, 
and actually went so far as to have the legal conveyance 
prepared. "But his father's passion and indignation" (to 
resume Clarendon's vivid narrative which it were a sin to 
paraphrase) " so far transported him (though he was a 
gentleman of excellent parts) that he refused any recon- 
ciliation and rejected all the offers that were made him of 
the estate : so that his son remained still in the possession of 
his estate against his will, for which he found great reason 
afterwards to rejoice." As did many others, including Mr. 
Hyde. So deeply, however, did Lucius feel the breach with 
his father, that he determined to take his wife abroad, with 
the intention of purchasing a military command in Holland, 
and spending his life as a soldier of fortune. But being dis- 
appointed in his hopes, he returned to England resolving, 
says Clarendon, to " retire to a country life and to his books ; 
that since he was not like to improve himself in arms, he 
might advance in letters. In this resolution he was so 
severe (as he was always naturally very intent upon what 
he was inclined to), that he declared he would not see Lon- 
don in many years, which was the place he loved best in 

to the fact that on 29th August, 1624, " Mr. Lucius Cary, sown and heir to the 
L. Deputie" was made a Freeman of the Corporation of Youghal. 
1 Clarendon, Life, i., 45. 



72 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

all the world." With such success did he devote himself 
to the study of Greek, which apparently was quite new to 
him, that within two years he had read " not only the Greek 
historians, but Homer likewise, and such of the poets as 
were worthy to be perused ". 

Some two years after his son's marriage, the elder Falk- 
land, while shooting with the King in Theobald's Park, fell 
from a stand and broke his leg. An amputation was per- 
formed, but blood-poisoning set in, and in spite of the 
devoted nursing of his wife, after a week's illness, he died. 
Though reconciled to his wife he never forgave his son. 

Sir Lucius Cary now succeeded to the Falkland peerage, 
but to little else save a heavily burdened property. In 
order to settle his father' 3 affairs, the new Lord Falkland 
was compelled to interrupt his voluntary exile at Great 
Tew, and spend some time in London. The first lord had 
never been free from monetary difficulties : his wife, as we 
have seen, had been induced to mortgage the estates settled 
upon her, a proceeding which was the immediate cause of 
her quarrel with her father, and the loss of her paternal 
inheritance. It is small wonder, therefore, that at his death 
his affairs were found to be terribly involved, and that in 
order to pay off the mortgages the younger Falkland was 
compelled to sell what Clarendon describes as " a finer seat 
of his own ". This can only refer to Burford Priory, which 
was sold to William Lenthall, afterwards Speaker of the 
House of Commons, for .£7,000. 

Having completed the business rendered necessary by 
his father's death, Falkland returned to Great Tew, there to 
resume, for a time all too short, a life of learned leisure and 
strenuous ease. That life, as depicted by the magic pen of 
Clarendon, forms one of the idylls of English prose. 



CHAPTER II 

GREAT TEW— SIBI ET AMICIS 

THERE still remain some spots in England which, 
despite their charm, are little known and compara- 
tively remote. Among these not the least beautiful and 
not the least remote is the district of the Oxfordshire up- 
lands. Rising from the valley of the Cherwell on the east, 
and from that of the " stripling Thames " on the west, this 
well-wooded land was almost covered in times past by the 
royal forests of Wychwood and Woodstock. It is now 
enclosed and dotted with small country towns and pictur- 
esque stone-built villages. In the very heart of this pleasant 
land, and far from the ordinary haunts of man, nestles the 
lovely village of Great Tew — memorable to all time as the 
home where Falkland spent the happiest and most tranquil 
years of his brief and storm-tossed life. 

Clarendon describes Great Tew as being "within ten or 
twelve miles of the University". In our modern mileage it 
is about seventeen as the crow flies, and nearer twenty by 
road. It lies a few miles off the main road from Banbury 
to Chipping Norton, but considerably nearer to the latter 
town. "The stranger who approaches it from any side 
except the north is quite unprepared," says a recent writer, 
" to come upon so picturesque a spot. After travelling for 
miles over high open stretches of cultivated down,he suddenly 
enters a forest-like country, and in a few moments finds 

73 



74 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

himself in the midst of a veritable sylvan Arcadia. We 
have now entered the confines of the yellow-stone region," 
and " the warm rich tints of the stone have never been seen 
to better effect than in the cottages of Great Tew. Here 
it sets off to perfection the tall many-gabled roofs of 
thatch, the mullioned windows, the rustic porches festooned 
with honeysuckle, and the trim, well-tended flower-beds. At 
the back of these cottages the greenest of meadows and 
orchards slope down to the tiny brook, while a well-timbered 
path guards the village at either extremity." * Except the 
quite modern (1885) memorial in the Church, and an inn, 
" The Falkland Arms," there is nothing to commemorate 
the brief reign of the greatest of the lords of Great Tew. 
The " walled gardens opening into each other in an orderly 
series " still remain, and here too are the noble lime-trees 
under which Falkland and his scholar-companions may often 
have held the convivium philosophicum and conviviuvi theo- 
logicum, but the property passed out of the Cary family at 
the end of the seventeenth century, and the house itself is 
comparatively modern. 

What manner of man was the lord of this fair domain ? 
In outward aspect he was entirely lacking in distinction. 
The portraits which we possess certainly bear out the des- 
criptions of contemporaries. " He was," says Triplet, " of 
David's stature, of his courage too." Aubrey says: "His 
person was little and of no great strength, his hair blackish 
and somewhat flaggy, and his eye black and quick ". Aubrey 
is hardly trustworthy, but even Clarendon admits that with 
all Falkland's advantages, " he had one great disadvantage 

1 1 have quoted from Mr. H. A. Evans' delightful description of a country 
which I know intimately and love well, chiefly in order to give myself an 
opportunity of acknowledging the pleasure and profit I have derived from 
his recent work, Highways and Byways in Oxford and the Cotswolds, Lon- 
don (1905). It is the work of a true lover of the country and a scientific 
archceologist. 




LUCIUS GARY, SECOND VISCOUNT FALKLAND 

FROM A PICTURE AT THE BODLEIAN 



GREAT TEW—SIBI ET AMICIS 75 

(which in the first entrance into the world is attended with 
too much prejudice) in his person and presence, which was 
in no degree attractive or promising. His stature was low, 
and smaller than most men ; his motion not graceful ; and 
his aspect so far from inviting, that it had somewhat in it 
of simplicity ; and his voice the worst of the three, and so 
untuned, that instead of reconciling it offended the ear, so 
that nobody would have expected music from that tongue ; 
and sure no man was less beholden to nature for its recom. 
mendation into the world : but then no man sooner or more 
disappointed this general and customary prejudice ; that 
little person and small stature was quickly found to contain 
a great heart, a courage so keen, and a nature so fearless, 
that no composition of the strongest limbs, and most har- 
monious and proportioned presence and strength, ever more 
disposed any man to the greatest enterprise : it being his 
greatest weakness to be too solicitous for such adventures : 
and that untuned tongue and voice easily discovered itself 
to be supplied, and governed by a mind and understanding 
so excellent, that the wit and weight of all he said carried 
another kind, of lustre and admiration in it, and as another 
kind of acceptation from the persons present, than any orna- 
ment of delivery could reasonably promise itself, or is usually 
attended with ; and his disposition and nature were so gentle 
and obliging, so much delighted in courtesy, kindness and 
generosity, that all mankind could not but admire and love 
him." 

Nor was Falkland one of those who are all smiles for 
the outside world, and reserve their ill humours for the 
home. His domestic life seems to have been one of un- 
dimmed happiness. His marriage with the sister of the 
dearest friend of his boyhood was, as we have seen, one of 
pure affection. Letice Morison had neither large portion 
nor great influence; but she had rare loveliness both of 



76 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

person and mind. " There is," says Gardiner, " a mingled 
sweetness and strength in the character of the English 
women who confront us in the biographical sketches of the 
day the moment we leave the precincts of the Court." All 
that we know of Lady Falkland leads us to believe that 
" in mingled sweetness and strength " she would have taken 
high place among those of whom Mr. Gardiner was primarily 
thinking. Falkland's confidence in his wife was so great 
that " though he loved his children with more affection than 
most fathers used to do, he left by his will all he had to 
his wife, and committed his three sons, who were all the 
children he had, to her sole care and bounty." This 
perhaps is the least inconvenient place in which to allude 
to a scandalous story, v r hich rests primarily on the gossip 
of Aubrey, but which, being referred to also by Clarendon 
cannot be passed over in the silence which it deserves. 
Clarendon, in his account of Falkland's death, mentions the 
rumour that " those who did not know him very well im- 
puted, very unjustly much (of his sadness and melancholy) 
to a violent passion he had for a noble lady ; and it was the 
more spoken of because she died the same day, and, as some 
computed it, in the same hour that he was killed ". Aubrey, 
with equal malice and inaccuracy, declares specifically " that 
it was the grief of the death of Mrs. Moray, a handsome 
lady at Court, who was his mistress and whom he loved 
above all creatures, was the true course of his being so 
madly guilty of his own death ". Aubrey's statement bears 
on the face of it its own refutation, but Clarendon's exposure 
of a heartless calumny is none the less grateful to Falk- 
land's friends and admirers: "They who knew either the 
lord or the lady, knew well that neither of them was capable 
of an ill imagination. She was of the most unspotted, un- 
blemished virtue ; never married ; of an extraordinary talent 
of mind, but of no alluring beauty ; nor of a constitution of 



GREAT TEW— SIB I ET AM I CIS 77 

tolerable health, being in a deep consumption, and not like 
to have lived so long by many months. It is very true, the 
Lord Falkland had an extraordinary esteem of her, and 
exceedingly loved her conversation, as most of the persons 
of eminent parts of that time did ; for she was in her un- 
derstanding, and discretion, and wit, and modesty, above 
most women ; the best of which had always a friendship 
with her." * 

Of Letice, Lady Falkland, our knowledge, apart from 
Clarendon's scattered hints, is derived mainly from a small 
devotional work by the Rev. John Duncon, 2 a " sequestered " 
parson who appears to have acted as the lady's chaplain or 
confessor at Great Tew after her husband's death. He draws 
a picture of Lady Falkland which, even making allowance for 
obvious partiality and probable exaggeration, is singularly 
beautiful and pathetic. Originally printed in 1649 as a letter 
to Lady Morison (her mother) " containing many remark- 
able passages in the most holy life and death of the late 
Lady Letice, Vi-Countess Falkland," it ran through several 
editions. " This elect lady set out very early," says Duncon, 
" in the ways of God in the dawn or morning of her age." 
A simple and touching picture is drawn of her upbringing 
" in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," and her ex- 
emplary conduct as daughter and wife. Aubrey's calumnies 
shrink into their due proportion when placed side by side 
with such a passage as the following : — 

" Now these riches, of her piety, wisdom, quickness of wit, 
discretion, judgment, sobriety, and gravity of behavior, being 
once perceived by Sir Lucius Cary, seemed Portion enough 
to him : these were they he prised above worldly Inheritances, 
and those other fading accessions, which most men court. 
And she, being married to him, riches and honour, and 

1 Life, i., 202. 

2 Alluded to by Tulloch with curious inaccuracy as John Duncan Parson. 



?8 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

all other worldly prosperity, flow in upon her and conse- 
quently to proceed in holinesse and godliness grows an harder 
task, then before it seemed to be ; it being much more diffi- 
cult when riches and honor thus increase, then, not to set 
her heart upon them. Yet God enabled her by his grace 
for this also ; for when possession was given her of 
stately Palaces, pleasantly seated, and most curiously and 
fittly furnished, and of revenues and royalties answerable, 
yet was not her heart any whit exalted with joy for 
them." 

In the company of this wife whom "he passionately 
loved," and of his three young boys, Falkland spent the years 
— all too brief — before the bursting of the political storm. 
In retrospect we can see that the Parliament which met in 
1640 merely gave expression to feelings long pent up ; that 
the storm had been gathering long before it burst. But 
to the eye of the contemporary the prospect was fair. 
Clarendon, who had no reason to minimise any discontent 
which might at that time have existed, declares that the 
country "enjoyed the greatest calm and fullest measure of 
felicity that any people in any age have been blessed with". 1 
Even May admits that "the times were jolly for the 
present " ; that any one would verily believe that " a nation 
that looked so cheerfully in the face could not be sick in 
any part ". " Serious and just men could not but entertain 
sad thoughts and presages," but " another sort of men and 
especially lords and gentlemen . . . did nothing but applaud 
the happiness of England." Among the " lords and gentle- 
men," Falkland may surely be counted. Laud, it is true, 
was becoming increasingly influential with the King ; and 
against the Archbishop Falkland had, as Clarendon tells us, 
"unhappily contracted some prejudice". But there is no 



1 ; 



i., 122. 



GREAT TEW— SIB I ET AM I CIS 79 

evidence that the innovating hand of Laud pressed heavily 
on Great Tew, and such anxieties as Falkland felt at this time 
were intellectual rather than political. 

For the most part the days at Great Tew were spent in 
the pleasant converse described with incomparable felicity 
by Clarendon. Thanks to his consummate art the picture 
has obtained a unique hold upon the imagination of cultured 
men : a hospitality offered freely but without ostentation, 
accepted simply and without embarrassment ; no social con- 
straint upon host or guest ; unrestrained freedom of intellect- 
ual intercourse ; no end to be served, save the sharpening of 
wits, and the attainment of truth ; admission to that choice 
society gained " by other rules than were prescribed to the 
young nobility of that time"; no regard paid to mere 
conventionality, and less to stupid unconventionality ; above 
all, no disregard of the laws of good taste and sound 
morality. The passages which contain the picture have been 
quoted almost ad nauseam, but it would be unpardonable 
in a biography of Falkland to omit them : — 

" It cannot be denied though he admitted some few to 
his friendship for the agreeableness of their natures, and 
their undoubted affection to him, that his familiarity and 
friendship, for the most part, was with men of the most 
eminent and sublime parts, and of untouched reputation in 
point of integrity ; and such men had a title to his bosom. 
He was a great cherisher of wit, and fancy, and good parts 
in any man ; and, if he found them clouded with poverty 
or want, a most liberal and bountiful patron towards them, 
even above his fortune ; of which, in those administra- 
tions, he was such a dispenser, as, if he had been trusted 
with it to such uses, and if there had been the least of vice 
in his expense, he might have been thought too prodigal. 
... In this time, his house being within ten miles of Ox- 
ford, he contracted familiarity and friendship with the most 



8o FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

polite and accurate men of that university ; who found such 
an immenseness of wit, and such a solidity of judgment in 
him, so infinite a fancy, bound in by a most logical ratiocina- 
tion', such a vast knowledge, that he was not ignorant in any 
thing, yet such an excessive humility, as if he had known 
nothing, that they frequently resorted, and dwelt with him, 
as in a college situated in a purer air ; so that his house 
was a university in a less volume ; whither they came not 
so much for repose as study; and to examine and refine 
those grosser propositions, which laziness and consent made 
current in vulgar conversation." 1 
And again : — 

" Truly his whole conversation was one continued con- 
vivium philosophicum or convivium theologicum enlivened 
and refreshed with all the facetiousness of wit, and good 
humour, and pleasantness of discourse, which made the 
gravity 'of the argument itself, (whatever it was) very de- 
lectable. His house where he usually resided (Tew, or 
Burford in Oxfordshire) being within ten or twelve miles of 
the university looked like the university itself, by the 
company that was always found there. There were Dr. 
Sheldon, Dr. Morley, Dr. Hammond, Dr. Earles, Mr. 
Chillingworth, and indeed all men of eminent parts and 
faculties in Oxford, besides those who resorted thither from 
London ; who all found their lodgings there, as ready as 
in the colleges ; nor did the lord of the house know of their 
coming and going, nor who were in his house, till he came 
to dinner, or supper, where all still met ; otherwise, there 
was no troublesome ceremony or constraint, to forbid men 
to come to the house, or to make them weary of staying 
there ; so that many came thither to study in a better air, 
finding all the books they could desire in his library, and all 

1 History. 



GREAT TEW— S/B/ ET AM/C/S 81 

the persons together, whose company they could wish, and 
not find in any other society." 1 

With this university in a less volume, with the honorary 
fellows of this " college situated in a purer air," we must 
make more intimate acquaintance. 

1 Life. 



CHAPTER III 

THE "SESSIONS OF THE POETS" 

IT will be noted that in the famous passages quoted above, 
Clarendon speaks only of the convivium philosophicum 
et theologicum, while the names of Falkland's guests specially 
commemorated in this connection are all those of grave 
divines. But there was an earlier period in his literary life 
during which Falkland's primary interest was not theo- 
logical but poetical, when he sought his associates not among 
university dons, but among gay poets " who resorted thither 
from London ". Suckling refers, not perhaps without a sigh 
of regret, to this transference of affection : — 

He was of late so gone with divinity, 
That he had almost forgotten his poetry, 
Though to say the truth, and Apollo did know it, 
He might have been both his priest and his poet. 

In the earlier stanzas of " A Sessions of the Poets," Suck- 
ling gives a catalogic list of these associates of Falkland's 
earlier years : — 

A session was held the other day, 
And Apollo himself was at it (they say) : 
The laurel that had been so long reserv'd, 
Was now to be given to him best deserv'd. 

And 
Therefore the wits of the town came thither, 
'Twas strange to see how they flocked together. 
Each strongly confident of his own way, 
Thought to gain the laurel away that day. 
82 



THE "SESSIONS OF THE POETS" 83 

There Selden, and he sat hard by the chair; 
Weniman not far off, which was very fair ; 
Sands with Townsend, for they keep no order, 
Digby and Shillingworth a little further ; 

And 
There was Lucan's translator too, and he 
That makes God speak so big in's poetry ; 
Selwin and Walter, and Bartlets both the brothers, 
Jack Vaughan and Porter, and divers others. 

The first that broke silence was good old Ben, 

Prepar'd before with Canary wine, 

And he told them plainly he deserv'd the bays, 

For his were call'd works, where others were but plays. 

Tom Carew was next, but he had a fault 

That would not well stand with a laureate : 

His muse was hard bound, and th' issue of s brain 

Was seldom brought forth but with trouble and pain. 

Will Davenant, asham'd of a foolish mischief 
That he had got lately travelling in France, 
Modestly hoped the handsomeness of his muse 
Might any deformity about him excuse. 

Suckling next was call'd, but did not appear : 
But straight one whisper'd Apollo i' th' ear, 
That of all men living he cared not for't, 
He loved not the muses so well as his sport. 

Wat Montague now stood forth to his trial, 
And did not so much as expect a denial ; 
But witty Apollo asked him first of all 
If he understood his own pastoral. 

Hales, set by himself, most gravely did smile 
To see them about nothing keep such a coil ; 
Apollo had spied him, but knowing his mind, 
Past by, and called Falkland that sat just behind. 

Falkland's own couplet from the " Eclogue " on the death 
of Ben Jonson gives us the names of, 

Digby, Carew, Killigrew and Maine, 
Godolphin, Walter, that inspired traine, 



84 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

and it is further noticeable that in George Daniel's MS. 
poems several of these names are associated with that of 
Falkland : — 

The noble Falkland, Digbie, Carew, Maine, 
Beaumond, Sands. 1 

Falkland with the partiality of a friend speaks of " that 
inspired traine," but inspiration is precisely the quality 
which the Caroline poets seem to lack. Milton is, of course 
excluded from this category. He was living at Horton 
and was writing " L' Allegro," " II Penseroso," " Comus" and 
" Lycidas " during the period of the Great Tew Convivia, but 
Milton was in every sense by himself apart. Between him 
and the various schools of poetical " wit," typical of Caroline 
poetry, there was nothing in common. The leading char- 
acteristics of those schools are, as Mr. Courthope 2 has 
pointed out, Paradox, Hyperbole, and Excess of Metaphor ; 
and these are the qualities which essentially distinguish 
most of Falkland's poetical associates. 

Among these, George Sandys (or Sands) occupies a 
special place. Curiously enough he is not even mentioned 
by Clarendon ; but to judge from Falkland's own poems 
there was no one for whom he had greater reverence and 
affection. Of the eight pieces included in Dr. Grosart's 
collection of Falkland's poems, no less than three are in- 
scribed "To my noble friend, Mr. George Sandys". A 
fourth, "To Hugo Grotius," is prefixed to Sandys' transla- 
tion of Christ's Passion : a Tragedy by Grotius. The in- 
scription becomes somewhat involved in places as between 
author and translator, but the following lines refer indisput- 
ably to the latter. They leave something to be regretted as 
poetry, but they are at least prosaically indicative of Falk- 

1 Falkland's Poems, ed. Grosart, note p. 48. 
-Hist, of Eng. Poetry, in., 106. 



THE "SESSIONS OF THE POETS" 85 

land's admiration for Sandys' achievements, both in action 
and in literature : — 

None hath a larger heart, a fuller head, 
For he hath seen as much as you have read : 
The nearer countries past, his steps have prest 
The new found world, and trod the sacred East ; 
Where, his browes due, the lofty palmes doe rise, 
Where the proud Pyramids invade the skies ; 
And, as all think who his rare friendship own, 
Deserves no lesse a journey to be known. 
Ullysses, if we trust the Grecian song, 
Travell'd not farre, but was a prisoner long ; 
To that by tempest forc'd : nor did his voice 
Relate his fate : his travels were his choice, 
And all those numerous realmes, returned agen, 
Anew he travel'd over with his pen. 
And, Homer to himselfe, doth entertaipe, 
With truths more usefull then his Muse could faine, 
Next Ovid's transformations he translates 
With so rare art, that those which he relates 
Yeeld to this transmutation, and the change, 
Of men to birds and trees, appeares not strange : 
Next the poetick parts of Scripture, on 
His loom he weaves, and Job and Solomon 
His pen restores with all that heavenly quire, 
And shakes the dust from David's solemn lyre. 
From which, from all with just consent he wan 
The title of the English Buchanan. 

Sandys, whom Falkland thus recommends to Grotius, was 
a son of Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York under Queen 
Elizabeth. He is now chiefly remembered as the trans- 
lator of Ovid's " Transformations," but, as Falkland in- 
dicates, he was eminent in his generation not merely as a 
scholar but as a traveller. He published in 161 5 an account 
of his travels in Italy, Turkey, Egypt and Palestine which 
ran through irany editions. The following lines suggest 
that Falkland regarded Sandys as a truly philosophical 
observer of men and things, as indeed he was: — 



86 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

For wheresoere I raise 
My thoughts, thy severall paines extort my praise. 
First, that which doth the pyramids display : 
And in a work much lastinger than they, 
And more a wonder, scornes at large to shew 
What were indifferent if true or no : 
Or from its lofty flight stoope to declare 
What all men might have known, had all bin there. 
But by thy learned industry and art, 
To those who never from their studies part 
Does each Land's laws, beliefe, beginning shew 
Which of the natives, but the curious know — 
Teaching the frailty of humane things 
How soon great kingdoms fall, — much sooner kings 
Prepares our soules, that chance cannot direct 
A machin at us more than we expect. 
We know that toune is but with fishers fraught, 
Where Theseus govern'd and where Plato taught ; 
That spring of knowledge, to which Italy 
Owes all her arts and her civility, 
In vice and barbarisme supinely rowles ; 
Their fortunes not more slavish than their soules. 

What state than theirs can more unhappy be, 

Threatened with hell, and sure of poverty. 

The small beginning of the Turkish kings, 

And their large growth, shew us that different things 

May meet in one third ; what most disagree 

May have some likenesse ; for in this we see 

A mustard-seed may be resembled well 

To the two kingdoms, both of heaven and hell, 

Their strength, and wants, this work hath both unwound, 

To teach how these t'increase, and that confound, 

Relates their tenets, scorning to dispute ; 

With error, which to tell is to confute ; 

Showes how even there where Christ vouchsaft to teach 

Their Devices dare an imposter preach, 

For whilst with private quarrels we decaid, 

We way for them and their religion made ; 

And can but wishes now to heaven preferre 

May they gaine Christ, or we his sepulchre. 

Sometimes Falkland touches, with light satire, questions 
of contemporary controversy ; as in the lines from the same 



THE "SESSIONS OF THE POETS" 87 

poem in which he refers to Sandys' description of the 
Eastern churches : — 

Those churches which from the first hereticks wan 

All the first fields, or led (at least) the van, 

In whom these notes, so much required, be, 

Agreement, miracles, antiquity. 

Which can a never-broke succession show 

From the Apostles doom ; (here bragg'd of so) 

So but confute her most immodest claime 

Who scorn a past, yet to be all doth aime. 

Lie now distrest between two enemy-powers, 

Whom the West dawns and whom the East devoures. 

What state than theirs can more unhappy be, 

Threadned with hell, and sure of poverty. 

Sandys, however, was as keenly interested in the new world 
of the West as in the older world of the East. He was a 
member of the Council of the Virginia company and spent 
some time in the colony. Old enough to have been 
Falkland's father it is difficult to trace the origin of their 
intimacy. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Anne Sandys, 
his niece, married one of Falkland's Oxfordshire neighbours 
Sir Francis Wenman of Carswell, near Witney, where Sandys 
was a frequent visitor. 

Wenman himself, according to Clarendon, lacked the 
health and ambition to play a prominent part in public 
affairs, t( though no man of his quality in England was more 
esteemed in Court. . . . He was a neighbour to the Lord 
Falkland, and in so entire friendship and confidence with 
him that he had great authority in the society of all his 
friends and acquaintance. He was a man of great sharpness 
of understanding, and of a piercing judgment ; no man 
better understood the affection and temper of the kingdom, 
or indeed the nature of the nation, or discerned further the 
consequence of counsels, and with what success they were 
like to be attended. He was a very good Latin scholar, 



88 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

but his ratiocination was above his learning ; and the 
sharpness of his wit incomparable." 

" Jack " Vaughan, destined to become " Sir John " and 
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (1668), is mentioned 
both by Suckling and Clarendon as belonging to the same 
set. He was at that time a young lawyer " much cherished 
by Mr. Selden," and "to that owed the best part of his 
reputation ". He seems to have dallied in literature, 1 but 
we have no evidence of any special friendship subsisting 
between him and Falkland. Clarendon, though he offered 
him a judgeship after the Restoration, had a well-grounded 
contempt for him, both as a man and a politician, and 
strongly resented his ingratitude towards himself. " He 
was of so magisterial and supercilious a humour, so proud 
and insolent a behaviour that all Mr. Selden's instructions, 
and authority and example, could not file off that roughness 
of his nature, so as to make him very grateful." Though 
he " preserved his loyalty entire " he " looked most into 
those parts of the law which disposed him to least reverence 
to the Crown and most to popular authority ". 

Selden himself, though much senior to Falkland, was, 
according to Clarendon, an intimate friend, a man of "so 
stupendous learning in all kinds and in all languages (as 
as may appear in his excellent and transcendant writings) 
that a man would have thought he had been entirely con- 
versant amongst books, and had never spent an hour but 
in reading and writing " ; but he was even more brilliant as 
a conversationalist. Selden's fame, however, belongs to 
English history, and, as he can have taken but little part 
in the convivia at Great Tew, this brief reference to his 
friendship with Falkland must suffice. 

Sidney Godolphin — the " Little Sid " of Suckling's poem 

1 He must not be confounded with Henry Vaughan, a really consider- 
able figure in seventeenth-century literature. 



THE "SESSIONS OF THE POETS" 89 

— was an exact contemporary (1610-43) of Falkland's, and 
shared his fate in the first year of the war. The origin of 
their friendship is humorously ascribed by Falkland to the 
fact that in stature Godolphin was inferior even to himself. 
"There was never," says Clarendon, "so great a mind and 
spirit contained in so little room ; so large an understanding 
and so unrestrained a fancy in so very small a body ; so 
that the Lord Falkland used to say merrily, that he thought 
it was a great ingredient into his friendship for Mr. 
Godolphin that he was pleased to be found in his company, 
where he was the properer man ; and it may be the very 
remarkableness of his little person made the sharpness of 
his wit and the composed quickness of his judgment the 
more notable." By nature averse to society and devoted to 
his books he was one of the many refined and retiring 
spirits imperatively called to action by the cruel events of 
the time. He sat for Helston, in his native county, in 
both the Parliaments of 1640, 1 and was strongly opposed to 
the condemnation of Strafford. He lives to us a figure 
strangely pathetic in Clarendon's slight sketch. " He was 
of so nice and tender a composition that a little rain or 
wind would disorder him and divert him from any short 
journey he had most willingly proposed to himself; . . . yet 
the civil war no sooner began . . . than he put himself into 
the first troops that were raised in the West for the King 
and bore the uneasiness and fatigue of winter marches, with 
an exemplar courage and alacrity; until by a too brave 
pursuit of the enemy ... he was shot (at Chagford) with 
a musket ... to the excessive grief of his friends who were 
all that knew him ; and the irreparable damage of the 
public." Hobbes, it may be noted, shared Clarendon's 
admiration for "little Sid," to whose brother Francis he 
dedicated the " Leviathian ". 

1 As in that of 1628-29. 



9 o FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

" Tom " Carew need not happily be mentioned among 
the friends of Falkland, although he was among the " chief 
acquaintance " of Clarendon. A man of dissolute habits he 
died, says Clarendon, "with the greatest remorse for that 
license". He wrote amorous verse which as a competent 
critic has said is " melodious and highly polished, though 
characterised by the usual conceits and affectation of his 
time ". The same writer caustically adds : " Carew has left 
some wretched attempts at versifying a few of the Psalms. 
. . . They have not a single merit." * The censure is per- 
haps overdone. Another critic, 2 certainly not less responsible, 
acquits him, except in one instance, of the charge of gross 
obscenity, though he condemns justly his pettiness and 
effeminacy. Mr. Courthope indeed goes so far as to say 
that lines such as some of Carew's " are sufficient in them- 
selves to explain the overthrow of the Cavaliers within 
twelve years at Marston Moor. An imagination so shallow, 
so incapable of penetrating to the heart and movement of 
things beyond the trivial circle of Court amusements, was 
of course unable to rise into the region of the noble and 
pathetic." 3 This suggestive criticism on Carew raises large 
and interesting questions as to the relation of poetry and 
politics, which, despite Falkland's immersion in both, it is 
impossible for his biographer to pursue. 

Of the rest of the long list given by Suckling it is un- 
necessary to say anything. Some have faded altogether 
from the memory of man. Some survive in other connec- 
tions. " Wat " Montague — the obscurity of whose pastoral is 
derided by Suckling; Hales and, above all, Chillingworth 
belong essentially to the later period of Falkland's literary 
friendships. They will be more fitly noticed in connection 
with the Convivium Theologicum. Abraham Cowley and 
Edmund Waller, superior to most as regards poetic achieve - 

1 Dr. Jessop, ap. D.N.B., s. v. 2 Mr. W. J. Courthope. 

3 Hist, of Eng. Poetry, iii., 244. 



THE "SESSIONS OF THE POETS" 91 

ment, are not in Suckling's list, and though they belonged to 
this famous circle they connect themselves, in relation to 
Falkland, rather with the Bellum Episcopate than with the 
convivium at Tew. Davenant, though an Oxford man by 
birth and education, does not, either in poetry or politics, 
connect himself with Falkland at all. Suckling himself — 
brilliant, versatile and reckless, a genuine poet but a dis- 
astrous political intriguer — will reappear. 

But there remains one name which, on more than one 
ground, deserves a passing notice in any biography of 
Falkland. 

Of all the members of this literary coterie Ben Jonson 
was, of course, incomparably the greatest, and the relations 
which subsisted between him and Falkland were especially 
graceful and honourable to both. 

He had an infant's innocence and truth 
The judgment of gray hairs, the wit of youth, 
Not a young rashness, nor an ag'd despair, 
The courage of the one, the other's care ; 
And both of them might wonder, to discern, 
His ableness to teach, his skill to learn. 

So Falkland wrote, not ungracefully, to his master and friend 
on one of his birthdays. On another he wrote an " Epistle 
to his noble father, Ben " : — 

I thought you proud, for I did surely know 
Had I Ben Jonson been, I had been so. 1 

Known to his friends as " our metropolitan in poetry," 
" Good old Ben " lacked nothing of the reverence due to his 
position or the popularity which is generally the meed of 
self-indulgence. Suckling's verse recalls his proverbial 
fondness for " canary wine," of which, says Izaak Walton, 
" he usually took too much before he went to bed if not 
oftener and sooner " ; but Falkland's lines, despite their 

1 Cf. Works of Ben Jonson, ed. Gifford, vol. ix. 



92 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

artificiality of form, are inspired by genuine feeling, and 
would suffice to prove, apart from other testimony, the 
affection of the young patron for his distinguished guest. 
Clarendon refers particularly to old Ben as a typical 
recipient of Falkland's open-handed but delicate generosity. 
" He seemed to have his estate in trust for all worthy persons 
who stood in want of supplies and encouragement, as Ben 
Johnson, and many others of that time, whose fortunes re- 
quired, and whose spirits made them superior to, ordinary 
obligations ; which yet they were contented to receive from 
him, because his bounties were so generously distributed, 
and so much without vanity and ostentation, that, except 
from those few persons from whom he sometimes received 
the characters of fit objects for his benefits, or whom he 
intrusted, for the more secret deriving them to them, he did 
all he could, that the persons themselves who received them 
should not know from what fountain they flowed ; and when 
that could not be concealed, he sustained any acknowledg- 
ment from the persons obliged with so much trouble and 
bashfulness, that they might well perceive, that he was even 
ashamed of the little he had given, and to receive so large a 
recompense for it." Not even the relation at which Claren- 
don thus delicately hints sufficed to strain the friendship 
between Falkland and the old poet who " did exceedingly 
exalt the English language in eloquence, propriety, and 
masculine expressions," and in whose memory Falkland 
wrote his most elaborate poem. 1 

Then for my slender reede to sound his name, 
Would more my folly than his praise proclaime ; 
And when you wish my weaknesse sing his worth, 
You charge a mouse to bring a mountaine forth. 
I am by Nature formed, by woes made dull, 
My head is emptier than my heart is full ; 

1 The Eclogue on the Death of Ben Jonson is printed in Grosart's collec- 
tion and also — though less accurately — by Lady T. Lewis. 



THE « SESSIONS OF THE POETS " 93 

Grief doth my braine impaire, as tears supply, 
Which makes my face so moist, my pen so dry. 
Nor should this work proceed from woods and dounes, 
But from th' academies, courts and tounes ; 

Yet for this cause no labour need be spent. 
Writing' his workes he built his monument. 

All classes and conditions of men continued to pay rever- 
ence to the great poet : — 

To him how daily flockt, what reverence gave 
All that had wit, or would be thought to have. 



How the wise, too, did with meere wits agree 
As Pembroke, Portland, and grave Aubigny ; 
Nor thought the rigid'st senator a shame 
To contribute to so deserv'd a fame : 
How great Eliza, the retreate of those 
Who weake and injured her protection chose. 

With her judicious favours did infuse 

Courage and strength into his younger muse ; 

How learned James, whose praise no end shall finde, 

Declared great Johnson worthiest to receive 
The garland which the Muses' hands did weave. 

How mighty Charles, amidst that weighty care 
In which three kingdoms as their blessing share, 

Found still some time to heare and to admire 
The happy sounds of his harmonious lire, 
As did his Queen. . . . 

Nor was the poet unworthy of his fame and popularity, 
for never did he prostitute his genius to vile or even un- 
worthy ends. 

... I oft have heard him tell 

Of his rare pen, what was the use and price, 

The bayes of vertue, and the scourge of vice ; 

How the rich ignorant he valued least, 

Nor for the trappings would esteeme the beast ; 

But did our youth to noble actions raise, 

Hoping the meed of his immortal praise. 



94 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

How bright and soone his Muse's morning shone, 

Her noone how lasting and her evening none ! 

How speech exceeds not dumbenesse nor verse prose, 

More than his verse the low rough rimes of those 

(For such his seene, they seem'd) who highest rear'd, 

Possest Parnassus ere his power appear'd ; 

Nor shall another pen his fame dissolve, 

Till we this doubtful probleme can resolve : — 

Which in his workes we most transcendent see, 

Wit, judgment, learning, art, or industry : 

Which " till" is never, so all jointly flow, 

And each doth to an equall torrent grow. 

His learning such, no author, old or new 

Except his reading, that deserved his view ; 

And such his judgement, so exact his test 

As what was best in bookes, as what bookes best, 

That had he join'd those notes his labours tooke, 

From each most praised and praise-deserving booke, 

And could the world of that choise treasure boast, 

It need not care though all the rest were lost : 

And such his wit, he writ past what he quotes, 

And his productions farre exceed his notes, 

So in his workes where ought inserted growes, 

The noblest of the plants ingrafted showes, 

That his adopted children equall not 

The generous issue his own braine begot ; 

So great his art, that much which he did write, 

Gave the wise wonder, and the crowd delight. 

Each sort as well as sex admired his wit, 

The hees and shees, the boxes and the pit ; 

And who lesse lik't within, did rather chuse 

To taxe their judgements than suspect his Muse. 

How no spectator his chaste stage could call 

The cause of any crime of his ; but all 

With thoughts and wits purg'd and ammended rise, 

From th' ethicke lectures of his comedies. 

Where the spectators act, and the sham'd age 

Blusheth to meet her follies on the stage : 

Where each man finds some light he never sought, 

And leaves behind some vanitie he brought ; 

Whose politicks no lesse the minds direct, 

Then these the manners ; nor with less effect. 



THE "SESSIONS OF THE POETS" 95 

When his majesticke tragedies relate, 

All the disorders of a tottering State, 

All the distempers which on kingdomes fall 

When ease, and wealth, and vice are generall — 

And yet the minds against all feare assure, 

And telling the disease, prescribe the cure: 

Where, as he tels what subtle wayes, what friends 

(Seeking their wicked and their wisht-for ends) 

Ambitious and luxurious persons prove, 

Whom vast desires or mighty wants doth move 

The generall frame to sap and undermine, 

In proud Sejanus and bold Catalene ; 

So in his vigilant Prince and consul's parts, 

He showes the wiser and the nobler arts, 

By which a State may be unhurt upheld, 

And all those workes destroy'd which hell would build 

Who (not like those who with small praise and writ, 

Had they not cal'd in judgment to their wit) 

Us'd not a tutoring hand his to direct 

But was sole workeman and sole architect. 

And sure by what my friend did daily tell 

If he but acted his own part as well 

As he writ those of others, he may boast, 

The happy fields hold not a happier ghost. 

Of Falkland's own position and powers as a poet some- 
thing remains to be said. Considerable extracts from his 
poems have already been given, sufficient, it is hoped, to 
enable the reader to estimate fairly his merits. It would 
be absurd to make any high claim on his behalf. The 
quantity of his output is inconsiderable, his poems, as col- 
lected by Dr. Grosart, occuping some sixty pages octavo ; 
and the quality is not such as to entitle him to any very 
exalted place among the minor poets. His poems are 
obviously the work of a scholar, a critic, a philosopher and 
above all a generous-hearted friend. " His first years of 
reason," writes Wood, "were spent in poetry and polite 
learning, into the first of which he made divers plausible 
sallies which caused him, therefore, to be admired by the 



96 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

poets of those times". 1 "Plausible sallies" describes not 
inaptly Falkland's essays in poetry ; but, without cynicism, 
doubt may be expressed whether they would have gained 
him the admiration of contemporaries had they been 
the work of a poor rival instead of a generous patron and 
devoted friend. Mr. Courthope, one of the sanest and 
soundest of modern critics, after pointing out that he 
worked mainly in the elegiac vein which Ben Jonson had 
developed, declares that "he had not inspiration enough 
to make his memorial verses vital and pathetic ". More- 
over, while willing to admit that the formal pastoral style 
" represented something of reality to the poet's imagination," 
he concludes, " the fact remains that Falkland fails to con- 
vince the reader that he is writing the language of his 
heart". But perhaps the last word on the matter rests 
with Bishop Earle whose judgment on his friend's poems 
(if Aubrey accurately reports him) was as sound as it was 
terse. " Dr. Earle would not allow Falkland to be a good 
poet, though a great wit ; he writ not a smooth verse, but 
a good deal of sense." The criticism is precisely true. If 
Falkland lacks the high gifts of music and imagination 
which would give him a place among the great poets, still 
less is he guilty of those affectations — or worse — which are 
too often characteristic of the minor poets. He is at least 
manly, straightforward and simple ; and eminently distin- 
guished for good sense. That he lacks " smoothness " he 
is himself painfully conscious. Thus in the last of the poems 
to Sandys he contrasts the acknowledged " smoothness " of 
Sandys with his own plausible sallies :- — 

Such is the verse thou writ'st, that who reads thine 
Can never be content to suffer mine ; 
Such is the verse I write, that reading mine 
I hardly can believe I have read thine ; 

l ii., 566. 



THE "SESSIONS OF THE POETS" 97 

And wonder that their excellence once knowne, 
I nor correct, nor yet conceale mine owne. 
Yet though I danger feare then censure lesse, 
Nor apprehend a breach like to a presse, 
Thy merits now the second time inflame, 
To sacrifice the remnant of my shame. 

This poem was written in 1640, only three years before 
his own mournful end. There seems, therefore, a strange 
pathos, as well as unquestionable poetic feeling, in its con- 
cluding lines, the last, as far as we know, that Falkland ever 
wrote : — x 

Howe're, I finish here ; my Muse her daies, 

Ends in expressing thy deserved praise, 

Whose fate in this seemed fortunately cast, 

To have so just an action for her last. 

And since there are who have been taught that death 

Inspireth prophecie, expelling breath, 

I hope when these foretell what happie gaines 

Posteritie shall reape from these thy paines, 

Nor yet from these alone, but how thy pen 

Earthlike, shall yearly give new gifts to men ; 

And thou fresh praise and wee fresh good receive. 

(For he who thus can write, can never leave) 

How Time in them shall never force a breach, 

But they shall always live and always teach, 

That the sole likelihood which these present 

Will from the more raised soules command assent. 

And the so taught will not beliefe refuse, 

To the last accents of a dying Muse. 

1 Grosart : Memorial Introduction, p. 26. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM 

WE pass to the second and more important stage in 
Falkland's literary career. The writing of verse 
seems to have remained to him as an occasional pastime 
until his absorption into the stern realities of political life. 
But his intimacy with the Cavalier poets represents after all 
merely a passing phase in his intellectual development, and 
the Sessions of the Poets gave way before long to the Con- 
vivium Philosophicum and Convivium Theologicum. 

Theology was the absorbing interest of Falkland's ripen- 
ing manhood. To Suckling's obvious regret he was " gone 
with divinity ". But theological speculation was with him 
only the intellectual reflex of deep religious earnestness and 
a lofty moral purpose. " His religion," says the good 
Triplet, " was the more eminent because the more early at 
that age when young gallants think least on it : when they, 
young candidates of Atheisme begin to dispute themselves 
out of a beleefe of a Deity, urging hard against that which 
indeed is best for them that it should never be, a judgment 
to come; then, I say that Salvation which these mention 
with a scoff or a jeere he began to work out with feare and 
trembling." Triplet's passing hint as to the genesis of much 
intellectual " doubt " proves him to have been a close and 
shrewd observer of youth. With Falkland the impulse 
to theological speculation was derived from individual reflec- 

98 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM 99 

tion upon the moral bases of conduct and life. At the same 
time he neglected no means of intellectual equipment for 
the task to which he now seriously devoted his life. On 
this point Clarendon is explicit. " He made so prodigious a 
progress in learning that there were very few classic authors 
in the Greek or Latin tongue that he had not read with 
great exactness. He had read all the Greek and Latin 
fathers ; all the most allowed and authentic ecclesiastical 
writers ; and all the councils with wonderful care and obser- 
vation ; for in religion he thought too careful and too curious 
an enquiry could not be made amongst those, whose purity 
was not questioned, and whose authority was constantly and 
confidently urged by men who were furthest from being of one 
mind among themselves ; and for the mutual support of their 
several opinions in which they most contradicted each other ; 
and in all those controversies, he had so dispassioned a con- 
sideration, such a candour in his nature, and so profound a 
charity in his conscience, that in those points, in which he 
was in his own judgment most clear, he never thought the 
worse, or in any degree declined the familiarity of those who 
were of another mind ; which without doubt is an excellent 
temper for the propagation and advancement of Christianity. 
With these great advantages of industry he had a memory 
retentive of all that he had ever read, and an understanding 
and judgment to apply it seasonably and appositely, with 
the most dexterity and address, and the least pedantry and 
affectation that ever man, who knew so much, was possessed 
with, of what quality soever." x It is a wonderful picture 
which Clarendon draws of the precise and painstaking 
scholar, the calm but eager searcher after truth, the courteous 
but keen controversialist, above all the large-hearted and 
simple-minded Christian who, with his own clear and un- 

1 Life, i., 48, 49. 

LOFC. 



ioo FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

shakeable convictions had the charity that thinketh no ill of 
those from whom he differed. 

Before attempting an estimate of the value of Falkland's 
own work in theology, it is desirable to make closer ac- 
quaintance with the brilliant band of scholars and divines 
who gathered round their host at Great Tew — Dr. Sheldon, 
Dr. Morley, Dr. Earle, Dr. Hammond and Mr. Chilling- 
worth. Hales, though not specifically mentioned, must surely 
have been included in the general description, " all men of 
eminent parts and faculties in Oxford, besides those who 
resorted thither from London". Of those whom Clarendon 
does name, the first died Archbishop of Canterbury, the 
second, Bishop of Winchester, and the third, Bishop of 
Salisbury ; but as theological writers none attained the 
eminence of Hammond or Hales or Chillingworth. 

A word is due, in the first place, of the man to whom 
we owe these noble portraits of Falkland and his friends. 
In this connection we think of Edward Hyde, Lord Claren- 
don, not as the distinguished lawyer ; not as the leader of 
the constitutional royalists ; not as the faithful adviser of 
Charles I., nor the patient counsellor of his exiled son ; not 
as the man who presided with moderating sagacity over the 
settlement of the Restoration, but of the chronicler of the 
time, the incomparable portrait painter, the devoted friend. 

Much may be said in criticism of the History of the Re- 
bellion. A great lawyer is perhaps constitutionally unfitted 
to be the impartial chronicler of such a period, nor could one 
who played a leading part in the drama be expected to view 
with impartiality its successive scenes, culminating in the 
great tragedy of 1649. But a P art from personal bias and 
the more or less conscious confusion of events, the History 
has two grave shortcomings : it fails altogether to gauge the 
strength of the forces which were at work to produce the 
great upheaval of 1640; and it attributes far too much 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM 101 

importance to the play of personal idiosyncrasies. But its 
merits and defects alike contribute to its perennial fascina- 
tion. As an analysis of the causes of the Rebellion it is 
wholly inadequate ; as a gallery of contemporary portraits 
it is interesting and valuable beyond all verbal computa- 
tion. By means of a few felicitous phrases, a deft touch 
here and a line there, Clarendon makes the men of the 
time live before our eyes. The Pyms and Hampdens, the 
Vanes and Wallers, the Essexes and Manchesters, the Hop- 
tons and Grenvilles, the Bedfords, Gorings, Digbys and the 
rest become our intimate associates ; we go in and out among 
them ; we know them as they were — or at least as they 
appeared to the prince of portrait painters. And if this be 
true of the general political crowd, how much more so of 
those with whom Clarendon lived on terms of affectionate 
intimacy, and particularly of the charmed circle at Great Tew. 
Of the affection which subsisted between Falkland and 
Clarendon it is unnecessary at this point to speak : almost 
every page of the subsequent narrative will bear testimony to 
its abiding strength. " From his age of twenty years," writes 
Clarendon of his dead friend, " he had lived in an entire 
friendship with the Chancellor who was about six months 
older ; and who never spake of him afterwards, but with a 
love and a grief, which still raised some commotion in him." 
The commotion has not infrequently communicated itself to 
his readers. Dean Boyle tells a story to this effect of Sir 
James Mackintosh. He appears to have been fond of read- 
ing extracts from Clarendon to his family, and when reading 
the famous passage on Falkland's last days he came to the 
words, " Peace, peace," he burst into tears, and was so agi- 
tated that on some later occasion when he was asked to read 
aloud, he said : " I will read anything but Clarendon's char- 
acter of Falkland ". It was a fitting tribute from one histo- 
rian to the genius of another. 



102 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Among the friends whom Hyde and Falkland gathered 
round them Sheldon claims first notice. Of Sheldon " Sir 
Francis Wenman would often say when the doctor resorted 
to the conversation at the Lord Falkland's house, as he 
frequently did, that ' Doctor Sheldon was born and bred to 
be Archbishop of Canterbury'". Sir Francis Wenman was 
not deceived by neighbourly partiality ; but the fulfilment 
of his prediction was deferred until after the Restoration. As 
Chaplain and Clerk of the Closet, Sheldon was in personal 
attendance upon Charles I. at Oxford, Newmarket, and in 
the Isle of Wight, and in 1648 was committed to custody in 
Oxford for his refusal to surrender the Warden's lodgings at 
All Souls to the Parliamentary visitors. Liberated on con- 
dition that he did not come within five miles of Oxford or 
" again go to the help of his suffering master," he went into 
retirement. He emerged to welcome Charles II. on his 
return to England, and to be rewarded for his steadfast 
loyalty by the Deanery of the Chapel Royal, the Bishopric 
of London, the Mastership of the Savoy and a seat in the 
Privy Council — appointments and honours which were 
showered upon him in rapid succession in 1660. He was 
largely responsible for the ecclesiastical settlement after the 
Restoration, and in 1663 succeeded Juxon as Archbishop 
of Canterbury. In that capacity he effected by a verbal 
arrangement with his friend, Lord Chancellor Clarendon, a 
change of high significance in regard to the constitutional 
status of the clergy. Henceforward the clergy ceased to 
tax themselves in convocation, and so were merged, in re- 
spect of one important function, into the mass of citizens. 
Ecclesiastically he was strongly opposed to nonconformity, 
but despite his official rigour against dissenters he is said to 
have shown them many acts of personal kindness. As a 
high Tory and strong Churchman he did not commend 
himself to Burnet, who with scandalous levity declared that 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHIC VM 103 

" he had little virtue and less religion ". Neal, the historian 
of the Puritans, has so far improved upon Burnet's statement 
as to affirm that "he made a jest of religion any further 
than it was a political engine of State". In view of the 
currency given to these statements, grossly defaming the 
memory of a good man, it is worth while to quote at greater 
length Burnet's opinion, together with that of another con- 
temporary. " Sheldon," says Burnet, " was accounted a 
learned man before the wars, but he was ever engaged so 
deep in politics that scarce any points of what he had been 
remained. He was a very dexterous man in business, had a 
great quickness of apprehension and a very true judgment. 
He was a generous and charitable man. He had a great 
pleasantness in conversation, perhaps too great. He had 
an art that was peculiar to him of treating all that came to 
him in a most obliging manner ; but few depended much on 
his professions of friendship. He seemed not to have a very 
deep sense of religion, if any at all, and spoke of it most 
commonly as of an engine of Government and a matter of 
policy. By this means the King came to look on him as a 
wise and honest clergyman." In the Commentaries 1 of 
Samuel Parker, Sheldon's chaplain and James II.'s nominee 
for the Presidency of Magdalen and the Bishopric of Oxford, 
we have a portrait of Sheldon which is at once obviously 
true to life, and at the same time sufficiently accounts for 
the uncharitable interpretation of Burnet and Neal. " Arch- 
bishop Sheldon," writes Parker, "was a man of undoubted 
piety, but though he was very assiduous at prayers yet he 
did not set so great a value on them as others did, nor 
regarded so much worship as the use of worship, placing the 
chief point of religion in the practice of a good life. In his 
daily discourse he cautioned those about him not to deceive 

1 Quoted by Burrows. 



104 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

themselves with an half religion nor to think that Divine 
worship was confined within the walls of the church, the prin- 
cipal part of it being without doors and consisting in being 
conversant with mankind. If men lived an upright, sober, 
chaste life then and not till then they might look upon them- 
selves as religious. ... He had a great aversion to all pre- 
tences to extraordinary piety which covered real dishonesty ; 
but had a sincere affection for those whose religion was 
attended with integrity of manners." This passage, and 
particularly the portions of it which I have italicised, are of 
peculiar value as explaining the qualities in Sheldon which 
proved irresistibly attractive to his friend Falkland. During 
the early days of that friendship, Sheldon was a Fellow of 
All Souls, but was elected to the Wardenship of that society 
in 1635-6. But already, as Clarendon tells us, his "learning, 
gravity and prudence . . . had raised him to such a repu- 
tation that he was then looked upon as very equal to any 
preferment the Church could yield or hath since yielded to 
him ". We may surmise, however, that powerfully as Falk- 
land was drawn to the learned scholar, he was even more 
attracted by the singularly unostentatious piety of the man 
who like his host thought more highly of a good life than of 
a long prayer, and who courageously rebuked vice in the 
highest quarters. Sheldon may have been more of a states- 
man than a divine ; he may have shown official harshness to 
Burnet's friends, but Oxford has good cause to cherish the 
memory of one of the most munificent of its benefactors, 
while the biographer of Falkland is seriously concerned to 
vindicate the character of one of the most intimate and per- 
haps the most distinguished of his friends. 

A strong contrast to the figure of the statesman-arch- 
bishop is that of his friend, Henry Hammond. Like Sheldon 
he was a chaplain to Charles I., and like him was in close 
attendance upon his master at Oxford, at Hampton Court 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM 105 

(in 1647), and in the Isle of Wight. Educated at Eton and 
Magdalen College, Oxford, he became a Fellow of the 
latter society in 1625, and remained in residence until his 
appointment to the living of Penshurst in 1633. At the 
latter date his active membership of the Great Tew Con- 
vivium must have ceased. An unbending Churchman and 
a devoted personal friend to Charles I., he so far conciliated 
the goodwill of his opponents as to be nominated to the 
Westminster Assembly (in which he never sat), and to earn 
the approbation of Richard Baxter and Bishop Burnet. 
His Practical Catechism was published in 1644, and it is 
said by Mr. Hooper 1 that " one of Charles' last acts at Caris- 
brooke was to entrust to Sir Thomas Herbert" a copy of the 
book for the use of his son the Duke of Gloucester. The 
same critic affirms that Hammond's Paraphrase and Anno- 
tations on the New Testament (published in 1653) gives him 
"a claim to the title of father of English biblical criticism" 
— a claim which it would perhaps be difficult to enforce, 
and which ignores, among others, that of Dean Colet. The 
list of his other published works fills nearly three and a half 
columns of the Dictionary of National BiograpJiy, and more 
detailed reference to their contents is, therefore, impossible. 
His life, written by his friend and contemporary, Bishop Fell, 
was published in 1661, and presents, as Dr. Tulloch says, 
"a beautiful picture of self-devotion, simplicity and saintli- 
ness." Dr. Hammond is said to have been destined, had he 
lived, for the Bishopric of Worcester. It was ar'ually filled 
for a year by his friend, Dr. Earle, who was cor.iecrated to 
that See in 1662, and translated to that of Salisbury in 1663. 
Bishop Earle is now best remembered as the author of 
a series of exceedingly " witty characters ". This work was 
published anonymously in 1628 under the title of Micro- 

1 AJ>. D.N.B., s. v. 



106 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

cosmographies or a Peece of World Discovered in Essay es and 
Characters ; it ran through a dozen editions or more, and 
has been reprinted in our own day. These "witty and 
sharp discourses " certainly tend to support Clarendon's 
assertion that " he was of a conversation so pleasant and 
delightful, so very innocent and so very facetious that no 
man's company was more desired and more loved ". Elected 
to a Fellowship at Merton in 1619 he was "notable for his 
eloquence in the Greek and Latin tongues," but he would, 
says Clarendon, " frequently profess that he had got more 
useful learning by his conversation at Tew than he had at 
Oxford ". He was nearly ten years older than Falkland, 
but was an intimate and much appreciated member of his 
circle, and had many affinities with him both as regards 
interests and character. Like his host, " his younger years 
were adorned " as Wood says, " with oratory, poetry, and 
witty fancies ". He was, says Clarendon, " an excellent 
poet both in Latin, Greek and English," but many of his 
poems he suppressed " out of an austerity to those sallies of 
his youth ". He spent at Tew " as much time as he could 
make his own," and Falkland attributed to his help the rapid 
progress he made in Greek scholarship. In theological 
views the friends must have been in complete sympathy. 
An entirely loyal member of the Church of England he was, 
like Hammond, nominated to a seat in the Westminster 
Assembly, though, like him, he refused it. But the offer is 
in itself sufficient to confirm Clarendon's statement that 
"he was among the few excellent men who never had and 
never could have an enemy ". 

Like his friends Sheldon and Earle, Dr. Morley was 
raised to the episcopal bench after the Restoration, becoming 
Bishop of Worcester in 1660, and of Winchester in 1662. 
Educated at Westminster and Christ Church he remained in 
Oxford after taking his degree (M.A., 162 1), and was a con- 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM 107 

stant visitor at Tew. He had a warm heart and a sharp 
tongue, being a man, says Clarendon, " of great wit and 
readiness and subtilty in disputation, and of remarkable 
temper and prudence in conversation which rendered him 
most grateful in all the best company ". The respect enter- 
tained for him by John Hampden and others of the Puritan 
party made him suspect in the eyes of " those Churchmen 
who had the greatest power in ecclesiastical promotions". 
Laud, indeed, lived long enough to recognise his entire 
loyalty and devotion to the Church, but Morley's famous 
rejoinder in regard to the Arminians — a rejoinder which 
would in itself have secured him immortality — can hardly 
have tended to conciliate the Archbishop's goodwill. " A 
grave country gentleman," being puzzled as to precise tenets 
of the Arminians, asked him on one occasion "what the 
Arminians held " ? To which query Morley pleasantly re- 
plied that " they held all the best bishoprics and deaneries 
in England ". 

The two other members of the famous coterie, Hales 
and Chillingworth, occupy a position of exceptional import- 
ance in relation to Falkland's intellectual life. 

Hales is described by Aubrey as " a prettie little man, 
sanguine, of a cheerfull countenance, very gentile and cour- 
teous . . . He loved Canarie : but moderately to refresh 
his spirits. He had a bountifull mind." Bountiful Hales 
was in more than a material sense. Heylyn says he was 
" as communicative of his knowledge as the celestial bodies 
of their light and influences ". 1 " One of the least men in 
the Kingdom ; and one of the greatest scholars in Europe," 
is Clarendon's pithy description. His erudition was pro- 
found and his powers of memory proverbial. " He had 
sure read more and carried more about him in his excellent 

1 Quoted in D.N.B. For Hales, cf. also Clarendon's Life, Aubrey, 
Wood, and Tulloch. 



io8 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

memory than any man I ever knew, my lord Falkland only 
excepted, who I think sided him." Between Falkland and 
Hales there was much in common besides small stature and 
great learning. They were alike in diffidence and mistrust 
of their own powers : Hales was as reluctant to take a cure 
of souls as Falkland to accept political office. They were 
alike suspected of Socinianism ; and with equal injustice. 
They were alike in their broad-minded views on religious 
toleration. Hales happened to be in Holland as chaplain 
to Sir Dudley Carleton, the ambassador at the Hague, at 
the time of the Synod of Dort (1618), and was sent by 
his chief to watch and report upon the proceedings. " He 
hath left," says Clarendon, " the best memorial behind him 
of the ignorance and passion and animosity and injustice 
of that convention ; of which he often made many pleasant 
relations." The Synod was the turning-point in his intel- 
lectual life. Like Falkland he became "a bigot for tolera- 
tion ". " Nothing troubled him more than the brawls which 
were grown from religion ; and he therefore exceedingly 
detested the tyranny of the Church of Rome; more for 
their imposing uncharitably upon the consciences of other 
men than for the errors in their own opinions : and would 
often say that he would renounce the religion of the Church 
of England to-morrow if it obliged him to believe that 
any other Christians should be damned." A truly remark- 
able utterance in the age of Baillie and Baxter, of Bancroft 
and Laud ; but that it was the national and characteristic 
expression of a singularly beautiful spirit is clear from 
Clarendon's description of the man. " No man more strict 
and severe to himself: to other men so charitable as to their 
opinions that he thought that other men were more in fault 
for their carriage towards them than the men themselves 
were who erred ; and he thought that pride and passion 
more than conscience were the cause of all separation from 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM 109 

each other's communion ; and he frequently said that that 
only kept the world from agreeing upon such a liturgy 
as might bring them into one communion. . . . Upon an 
occasional discourse with a friend of the frequent and un- 
charitable reproaches of heretick and schismatic too lightly 
thrown at each other amongst men who differ in their judg- 
ment he writ a little discourse of Schism, contained in less 
than two sheets of paper." This is the famous tract on 
"Schism and Schismatics" which, written about 1636, was 
circulated in manuscript and eventually published in 1642. 
Laud who " was a very rigid surveyor of all things which 
never so little bordered up on Schism," sent for Hales whom 
he had known at Oxford but lost sight of. It is to the eternal 
honour of the Archbishop, and an evidence of his real toler- 
ance of soul, that he not only made Hales one of his chap- 
lains, but pressed upon him a canonry of Windsor. As he 
was a Fellow of Eton and resided there, it was, as Clarendon 
points out, " the most convenient preferment that could be 
thought of for him," but the old scholar declared that "he 
had enough," and eventually accepted it more to please 
Laud than to please himself. At Eton Hales eventually 
died, after much harsh treatment at the hands of the domi- 
nant party, in 1656. 

At the moment when Hales was writing his tract on 
schism, Chillingworth was busily engaged at Tew in pre- 
paring his monumental work on The Religion of Protestants. 
Of all Falkland's friends he was, with the exception of 
Clarendon, the most intimate and, in an intellectual sense, the 
most influential. Aubrey speaks of him as Falkland's " most 
intimate and beloved favourite," and as being " most com- 
monly with my lord ". 

William Chillingworth was in every sense of the word an 
Oxford man : born at Oxford (1602), the son of a prosperous 
brewer who was afterwards mayor of the city ; a godson of 



no FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

" Mr. Laud of St. John's College " ; educated at a Grammar 
School in Oxford; Scholar and subsequently (1628) Fellow 
of Trinity College. The University, like the country at large, 
reeked at that time with theological controversy ; " I think," 
says Aubrey, " it was an epidemick evill of that time which 
now is growne out of fashion as unmannerly and boyish". 
Among the disputants Chillingworth was, he says, "the 
readiest and nimblest". "A man," says Clarendon, "of so 
great a subtilty of understanding and so rare a temper in 
debate, that as it was impossible to provoke him into any 
passion, so it was very difficult to keep a man's self from 
being a little discomposed by his sharpness and quickness 
of argument and instances in which he had a rare facility 
and a great advantage over all the men I ever knew. He 
had spent all his younger time in disputation, and had arrived 
at so great a mastery as he was inferior to no man in those 
skirmishes." But he was no mere controversialist for the 
sake of controversy ; he was throughout life a fearless and 
untiring seeker after truth. The search carried him back- 
wards and forwards, but it was none the less genuine. After 
taking his degree he came under the influence of John Fisher, 
the Jesuit, and finding himself " unable to answer his argu- 
ments," he allowed himself to be received into the Church of 
Rome. A year at Douay, combined with earnest corre- 
spondence with his godfather Laud, sufficed to convince him 
of his error, and in 163 1 he returned to Oxford and ulti- 
mately to the fold of the Anglican Church. Drawn to- 
wards Falkland by common intellectual interests, he became 
an intimate friend, and practically took up his residence at 
Great Tew where he wrote his great work, published in 1637. 
The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way of Salvation 
was the most important contribution to Anglican theology 
since the publication of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, but 
the form of the work is, it must be confessed, repellant to 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM in 

any but professional controversialists. In 1630 a Jesuit, 
Edward Knott or Nott, published a work Charity mistaken 
with the want whereof Catholics are unjustly charged for 
affirming as they do with grief that a P rotes tancy unre- 
pented destroys Salvation. To this Dr. Potter, Provost of 
Queen's College, replied in Want of Charity justly charged 
on all such Romanists as dai'e {without truth or modesty) 
affirm that Protestancie destroyeth Salvation. Knott re- 
turned to the charge with Mercy and Truth or Charity 
maintained by Catholics. 

It was then that Chillingworth struck in with the work 
on which his abiding fame rests. Detailed examination of 
its argument is impossible in this place, but the reader who 
desires to make it may be referred to the excellent edition 
published by the Oxford University Press in 1838, or, 
failing time and inclination (and be it added the trained 
skill necessary) to unravel the essential argument under the 
disadvantages of the form, to Dr. Tulloch's x masterly analysis. 
The main thesis of the work may be reduced to two argu- 
ments and an appeal. First, he argues that the fundamental 
and essential truths of religion are comparatively few and 
simple ; secondly, that they may be ascertained by simple 
and learned alike from the Bible ; and finally, he makes a 
noble appeal for Christian unity on the basis of the widest 
possible toleration. For the essentials of belief he would ac- 
cept the statements of the Apostles' Creed which has been 
esteemed " a sufficient summary or catalogue of fundamentals 
by the most learned Romanists and by antiquity ". " What 
man or Church soever believes this Creed and all the evident 
consequences of it, sincerely and heartily, cannot possibly 
be in any error of simple belief offensive to God." To the 
Roman principle of infallibility he opposes the assertion that 

1 Op. cit., pp. 305-40. 



U2 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

" the Bible and the Bible only is the religion of Protestants ". 
To the common objection as to difficulties of interpretation 
he boldly replies that Scripture * " is sufficiently perfect and 
sufficiently intelligible to all that have understanding, whether 
they be learned or unlearned. And my reason hereof is 
convincing and demonstrative, because nothing is necessary 
to be believed but what is plainly revealed. For to say that 
where a place, by reason of ambiguous terms, lies indifferent 
between divers senses whereof one is true and the other is 
false, that God obliges man, under pain of damnation, not 
to mistake through error and human frailty, is to make 
God a tyrant ; and to say that He requires us certainly to 
attain that end, for the attaining whereof we had no certain 
means, which is to say that, like Pharaoh, He gives no 
straw, and requires brick ; that He reaps where He sows 
not ; that He gathers where He strews not ; that He will 
not accept of us according to that which we have but re- 
quireth of us what we have not. . . . Shall we not tremble 
to impute that to God which we would take as foul scorn if 
it were imputed to ourselves ? Certainly I for my part fear 
I should not love God if I should think so strangely of Him." 
" I am fully assured," he concludes, " that God does not and, 
therefore, that man ought not, to require any more of any 
man than this — to believe the Scripture to be God's word, to 
endeavour to find the true sense of it, and to live according 
to it." 

Here we have the basis for the truly Catholic Church, 
into whose fold Chillingworth, like Falkland, would fain have 
seen all men brought ; here we have a basis for the religion 
of Protestants. And " by the ' Religion of Protestants ' I 
do not understand the doctrine of Luther or Calvin or 
Geneva, nor the Confession of Augusta or Geneva, nor the 

1 Tulloch, p. 326. 



THE CON VI VI UM PHIL SOP HI CUM 1 1 3 

Catechism of Heidelberg, nor the Articles of the Church of 
England — no, nor the harmony of Protestant confessions ; 
but that wherein they all agree, and which they all subscribe 
with a greater harmony as a perfect rule of their faith and 
actions — that is, the Bible". Definition is the parent of 
schism ; definition is the presumptuous sin. " This pre- 
sumptuous imposing of the senses of men upon the words of 
God — the special senses of men upon the general words of 
God, and laying them upon men's consciences together, 
under the equal penalty of death and damnation ; this vain 
conceit, that we can speak of the things of God better than 
in the words of God ; thus deifying our own interpretations, 
and tyrannous enforcing them upon others ; this restraining 
of the Word of God from that latitude and generality, and 
the understandings of men from that liberty wherein Christ 
and the Apostles left them, is and hath been the only fountain 
of all the schisms of the Church, and that which makes them 
immortal ; the common incendiary of Christendom, and that 
which tears in pieces not the coat, but the bowels and 
members of Christ. Ridente Turca nee dolente Jud&o. Take 
away these walls of separation, and all will quickly be one. 
Take away this persecuting, burning, cursing, damning of 
men for not subscribing to the words of men as the words of 
God ; require of Christians only to believe Christ, and to 
call no man master but Him only ; let those leave claiming 
infallibility that have no title to it, and let them that in 
their word disclaim it, disclaim it likewise in their actions. 
In a word, take away tyranny, which is the devil's instrument 
to support errors and superstitions and impieties in the several 
parts of the world, which could not otherwise long withstand 
the power of truth ; I say, take away tyranny, and restore 
Christians to their just and full liberty of captivating their 
understanding to Scripture only, and as rivers, when they 
have a free passage, run all to the ocean, so it may well be 



ii 4 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

hoped, by God's blessing, that universal liberty, thus unre- 
stricted, may quickly reduce Christendom to truth and unity." 
The Religion of Protestants, written under his own roof, 
composed after persistent consultation and discussion with 
him, undoubtedly reflects with accuracy the mind of Falk- 
land not less than that of Chillingworth. But while it is 
regarded by many in our own day as the highest expres- 
sion of the finest minds of the seventeenth century, it did 
not save its author from the most refined cruelty at the 
hands of the Puritan fanatic into whose power he unfortun- 
ately came during his last days on earth. If justification 
be sought for the course taken by Falkland and Hyde, if it 
be doubted whether their anticipation of events, should the 
Puritan party become dominant, was really intelligent, it is 
sufficient to recall the treatment accorded by Cheynell to 
the author of the Religion of Protestants. 

Chillingworth had enlisted with Falkland under the 
King's banner ; with Falkland he was present at the siege 
of Gloucester, and after his friend's death he joined Sir 
Ralph Hopton and was present with his forces at the taking 
of Arundel Castle. At Arundel he fell sick, and when in 
December, 1643, tne castle was retaken by the Parliamen- 
tarian forces, he was too ill to be removed with the rest of 
the prisoners to London and was sent to Chichester. There 
he was lodged in the Bishop's Palace and was tended with 
all possible care. Unfortunately, Mr. Francis Cheynell, one 
of Essex's chaplains and lately appointed Rector of Pet- 
worth, discovered in Chillingworth ao old antagonist, and his 
last days were tormented by Cheynell 's persistent anxiety 
to " deal freely and plainly with his soul and make him see 
the error of his ways ". The story of the contest between the 
lusty Puritan and the dying scholar is told by Cheynell 
himself in a work which he published shortly after Chilling- 
worth's death. 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM 115 

The title of the book is sufficiently indicative of its con- 
tents : Chillingworthi Novissima ; or the Sickness, Heresy, 
Death and Burial of William Chillingworth (in his own 
phrase) clerk of Oxford, and in the conceit of his fellow 
soldiers the Queen's arch-engineer and grand intelligencer 
. . . a discovery of his errors in a brief catechism and a 
short oration at the burial of his heretical book. Chilling- 
worth desired that he might be buried according to the 
rites of his own Church — a privilege which Cheynell appears 
to have procured for him. " As devout Stephen was carried 
to his burial by devout men, so is it just and agreed," writes 
Cheynell, " that malignants should carry malignants to their 
grave." But Cheynell was not to be deprived of his op- 
portunity. At the graveside he appeared with " Master 
Chillingworth's book " in his hand, and delivered a long 
harangue after which he flung the book into the open grave. 
" If they please to undertake the burial of his corpse, I shall 
undertake to bury his errors, which are published in this so 
much admired yet unworthy book ; and happy would it be 
for the kingdom if this book and all its fellows could be so 
buried. Get thee gone, thou cursed book, which hast se- 
duced so many precious souls ! Get thee gone, thou corrupt 
rotten book ! Earth to earth and dust to dust ! Get thee 
gone into the place of rottenness, that thou mayest rot with 
thy author, and see corruption." 1 

It is a revolting story, and would be too horrible for 
credence, but that it is related with high satisfaction by the 
leading actor. But though revolting it is by no means 
devoid of instruction. What wonder that the Falklands, in 
their refinement and tolerance of soul, should have resisted 
the threatened domination of the coarse-fibred zealots like 
Cheynell ? 

Bulloch, i., 303. 



n6 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Falkland's political action must be explained and justified 
by his own not infrequent speeches in the Long Parliament. 
Several of them are happily preserved, and will be printed 
in this work in full. But this is the proper place to say 
something of his theological work. With one very im- 
portant exception it has been hardly dealt with. Mr. 
Goldwin Smith writes of him : "As a theologian Falkland 
appears to have been a Chillingvvorth on a very small 
scale". Gardiner, in an appreciation which is necessarily 
summary, 1 obviously inclines to a similar view. While 
doing full justice to the beauty of his mind and character, 
he compares him unfavourably with his friends Hales and 
Chillingworth. Speaking of his religious writing he says : 
" There is ability without originality. His thought on the 
subject bears the distinct impress of Chillingworth's mind, 
in a way which the writings of Hales do not. Yet it 
would be a great mistake to speak of Falkland's personality 
as unimportant in the historical development of religious 
thought. Because he was not himself a cutter of new paths, 
he was all the more a representative man, and he stands 
forth as the central figure of a special phase of progress. In 
his large wisdom, his gentle tolerance, his sweet reasonable- 
ness, even in his very impetuosity there was more of nature's 
daily food than was to be found in men intellectually so 
superior to him as Chillingworth and Hales." 

The implied comparison is an unfair one. Chillingworth 
and Hales were, so to say, professional theologians ; Falkland 
was an exceptionally gifted and interested amateur. It were 
idle to pretend that in themselves his writings would entitle 
him to a high place among the theologians of his time. The 
claim which is here made for him is of another sort. The 
Discourse on Infallibility taken in conjunction with his 

M/. D.N.B. 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM 117 

Reply to Thomas White, and his answer to Montague's 
Letter against Protestantism, at least prove that the young 
lord of Great Tew, destined to high office under the Crown, 
called upon to make a momentous choice at a critical 
time in his country's history was reflecting deeply and 
earnestly upon the great ecclesiastical and theological prob- 
lems of the day. Reared in the Calvin ist atmosphere 
of Trinity College, Dublin, exposed at home to the 
Romanising influence of a mother for whose beauty of 
character, religious zeal and profound erudition he had the 
deepest respect, Falkland had held upon his own intellectual 
course steadfast in the midst of cross currents and tempestu- 
ous gusts of controversy. There would have been small 
cause for surprise had his judgment been overwhelmed in 
the storm which surrounded his early years ; if he had either 
surrendered in weariness to the persuasions of his mother 
or abandoned in despair all religious faith. Only one other 
member of his family resisted the mother's persuasive tongue, 
and perhaps more persuasive life. His two surviving 
brothers, as we have seen, became priests, his four sisters 
took the veil. No effort, of course, was spared to bring 
Lucius into the fold of the infallible Church, and if his 
sister's narrative is to have credence, there was a period 
when the efforts were not far short of success. The follow- 
ing passage is not a model of lucidity, but its general tenor 
is sufficiently plain : " They {i.e., his sisters) could not but 
see in general (besides many particulars) that either the 
Protestants said the same as the Catholics, taking their part 
entirely against their own side — as their eldest brother then 
did who was so wholly a Catholic in opinion then, that he 
would affirm he knew nothing but what the Church told 
him ; pretending for his being none, that though this seemed 
to him to be thus — and that he always disputed in the 
defence of it — yet he would not take upon him to resolve 



u8 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

anything so determinately as to change his profession upon 
it till he was forty years old ; but he did not live to see 
four-and-thirty ; yet this good inclination towards religion 
he had for some years, and had received from the conversa- 
tion of his mother and the company he met at her house, 
having before believed but little, and he continued in the 
same mind till a little after, when meeting a book of Socinus, 
it opened to him a new way, as also Mr. Chillingworth." * 
How far it is a fact that Lucius Cary was at any time 
" wholly a Catholic in opinion " (in the Roman sense) it is 
of course impossible to say. But it may be surmised from 
this passage, had we no other evidence, that he was rather 
acting the part of a dutiful and affectionate son in putting 
aside as gently as possible the importunities of a zealous 
mother. There is, on the other hand, no independent 
testimony in favour of the suggestion here made. It will 
be noticed that this interesting extract obviously reflects 
the view of the family that Lucius's deflection from the 
straight doctrinal path was due to his meeting with a book 
of Socinus and to the malignant influence of Chillingworth. 
Gardiner 2 has explained that the charge of Socinianism 
preferred against Falkland and his associates amounted 
to little more than an assertion that he persisted in apply- 
ing " reason to questions of revelation ". In this sense 
the charge is true. Falkland was determined to apply 
reason to questions of theology and of ecclesiastical organis- 
ation. But he entered on his task with no levity of mind 
or captiousness of spirit. Clarendon cannot be suspected of 
leanings towards Socinianism of any sort, but he declares 
that Falkland's " two large discourses against the principal 
position of that religion" (Roman Catholicism) were written 
" with that sharpness of style and full weight of reason that 
the Church is deprived of great jewels in the concealment of 

1 Lady Falkland's Life, pp. 55, 56. 2 Op. cit., sup. 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM 119 

them ". The loss to the Church was averted by the faithful 
Triplet who in 165 1 edited the discourse entitled Of the 
Infallibilitie of the Church of Rome, together with an answer 
to it, and Falkland's lengthy and elaborate Reply to the 
answer. He set out, as Triplet says, " in search of that, which 
he would have as gladly found, as he hath rationally rejected, 
an Infallible fudge here on earth, in all our controversies in 
point of religion of which the labouring world seemeth at 
present to stand in so much need 'V To the acceptance of 
the doctrine of infallibility, two things, as Falkland urges, are 
essential : First, the infallibility must be proved. " If the 
Church be the one infallible determination, and that can never 
be believed upon its own authority, we can never infallibly 
know that the Church is infallible, for these other ways of 
proof may deceive both them and us, and so neither side is 
bound to believe them. If they say that an argument out of 
Scripture is sufficient ground of Divine Faith, why are they 
offended with the Protestants for believing every part of 
their religion upon that ground, upon which they build all 
theirs at once. And if, following the same Rule, with equal 
desire of finding the truth by it, why should God be more 
offended with the one than with the other, though they 
chance to err." Secondly, this infallibility must be plainly 
manifested by God to reside in the infallible Church, and 
that Church itself must be clearly indicated as the sole 
repository of truth. Otherwise man is mocked. " Unless 
it be manifest which is the Church, God hath not attained 
his end ; and it were to set a ladder to Heaven, and seem to 
have a great care of my going up, whereas unless there be 
care taken that I may know this ladder is here to that 
purpose, it were as good for me it never had been set." 
Thus, to use Dr. Tulloch's helpful phrase, the infallibility 
must be not merely proved but "located". But further, 

1 Ed. 1651, p. 2. 



120 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

assuming both these difficulties to be overcome, to what 
purpose are all these pains? After all, reason must ulti- 
mately decide, even if the decrees of the Councils speak 
with one voice. " For the sense of their decrees, I can have 
no better expounder than reason, which if (though I mistake) 
I shall not be damned for following, why shall I for mistak- 
ing the sense of the Scripture? or why am I a less fit 
Interpreter of the one, than of the other ? and when both 
seem equally clear, and yet contradictory, shall I not as soon 
believe Scripture which is without doubt of as great anti- 
quity?" It would be tedious to follow in further detail an 
argument which has now become conventional ; but the 
author thus summarises it with admirable lucidity in his 
concluding paragraph : — 

" To conclude, if they can prove that the Scripture may 
be a certainer teacher of truth to them than to us, so that 
they may conclude the infallibility of the Church out of it } 
and we nothing ; if they can prove the Churches infallibility 
to be a sufficient guide for him, that doubts which is the 
Church, and cannot examine that (for want of learning) by 
her chief marke, which is conformity with the ancients; if they 
can prove, that the consent of Fathers long together is a 
stronger argument against us, then against the Dominicans ; 
if they can prove (though it be affirmed by the first of them, 
that such a thing is Tradition, and believed by all Christians, 
and this assertion till a great while after, uncontradicted) 
yet they are not bound to receive it, and upon lesse grounds 
we are ; if indeed any can prove by any infallible way, the 
infallibility of the Church of Rome, and the necessity under 
pain of damnation for all men to believe it ... I will sub- 
scribe to it." 

Finally, he concludes with a noble and pathetic appeal 
that if he be wrong he may be confuted, " not standing 
upon any small slip," but upon the merits of the argument, 



THE CONVIVIUM PHILOSOPHICUM 121 

and in a reasonable temper " remembering that Truth in 
likelyhood is where her author God was, in the still voice, 
and not the loud wind" . If only his opponent will help to 
bring him to the Truth " not only by his arguments but also 
by his prayers " ; then, if he fail, " I am confident that he 
will neither have reason to be offended with me in this world 
nor God (for that) punish me in the next". 1 This passage 
is at once eminently characteristic of Falkland's contro- 
versial methods, and at the same time truly representative 
of his innermost convictions. " Truth in likelyhood is 
where her author God was, in the still voice, and not the 
loud wind." A belief may after all be passionately held 
even though it be courteously maintained. Such a belief, 
such a method, was Falkland's. 

Of even more immediate and practical significance is 
the strong line which he takes up in favour of the right and 
duty of rational inquiry, and in condemnation of the practice 
of persecution in the name of religion. " I am sure the 
Christian religion's chiefest glory is, that it increaseth by 
being persecuted ; and having that advantage of the Mo- 
hammedan, methinks it should be to take ill care of 
Christianity to hold it up by Turkish means — at least, 
it must breed doubts, that if the religion had always 
remained the same, it would not now be defended by ways 
so contrary to those by which at first it was propagated. 
I desire recrimination may not be used ; for though it be 
true that Calvin had done it, and the Church of England a 
little (which is a little too much) yet she, (confessing she 
may err) is not so chargeable with any fault as those 
which pretend they cannot, and so will be sure never to 
mend it." Thus, as Tulloch finely says : " His plea against 
infallibility is in reality a plea in favour of freedom of re- 
ligious opinion in a sense which neither Prelatist nor Puritan 

1 Of the Iufallibilitie, fin. 



122 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

in the seventeenth century understood. It seemed to him 
then as it has seemed to many since possible to make 
room within the national Church for wide differences of 
dogmatic opinion, or in other words, for the free rights of 
the Christian reason incessantly pursuing its inquest after 
truth and moulding the national consciousness to higher 
conceptions of religious thought and duty. The frame of 
the Church of England was admirably suited for such a 
purpose as linking together in its Catholic order the Christian 
ages and being in itself both apostolic and rational. He 
would have reformed and purified it as the flexible and 
appropriate vehicle of the nation's religious progress." This 
was the conservative side of his thought, where he separated 
entirely from the " root and branch " men, on the principle 
succinctly expressed by him that " where it is not necessary 
to change, it is necessary not to change ". 

It is difficult to withstand the temptation of lingering 
over the literary work of Falkland and his friends, for it is 
associated with the period of his life which was one of un- 
clouded happiness. A rapid change was soon to pass over 
the scene. Already the clouds were coming up on the 
horizon, already the peaceful days at Great Tew were 
numbered. The Convivium was soon to be broken up by 
the rude shock of war ; the theories of the philosopher were 
soon to be put to the test in the hard school of political ex- 
perience. Falkland shrank from no responsibility, intel- 
lectual, military or political. At the call of duty he gave 
up promptly, though with heavy heart, the life of learned 
leisure so dear to himself, so profitable to his friends, and he 
bade good-bye to his peaceful home, and to the studies he 
had pursued with such lofty purpose and such untiring zeal. 
Reluctantly we turn our backs upon the " violets and limes" 
of Tew, and plunge into the political vortex in which Falk- 
land was henceforth to be involved. 




THE GARDENS AT GREAT TEW 



BOOK III 

CHAPTER I 

THE GATHERING STORM 

IN the late summer of 1637 the news reached London 
that serious riots had broken out in Edinburgh. It 
was the first intimation to the English people that anything 
was amiss to the north of the border. " The truth is," says 
Clarendon, " there was so little curiosity either in the Court 
or the country to know anything of Scotland or what was 
done there, that when the whole nation was solicitous to 
know what passed weekly in Germany and Poland and all 
other parts of Europe, no man ever inquired what was 
doing in Scotland, nor had that kingdom a place or mention 
in one page of any gazette, so little the world heard or 
thought of that people ; and even after the advertisement of 
this preamble to rebellion, no mention was made of it at the 
Council board." 1 He attributes this ignorance, the depth of 
which he probably exaggerates, to the King's jealousy for 
the independence of his northern kingdom. Be this as it 
may, the ignorance was soon to be dissipated, for the Scotch 
revolt was in grim earnest destined to prove a " preamble to 
rebellion ". 

For nearly ten years the storm had been slowly gather- 
ing. During the first three years of Charles I.'s reign the 

1 Hist., i., 180. 
123 



124 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

opposition leaders had striven hard to deceive themselves 
into the belief that the real offender was not Charles, but the 
incompetent favourite, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. 
The King insisted on assuming responsibility, and after 
Buckingham's murder in 1628 the pleasing constitutional 
fiction could no longer be maintained. Discontent culmin- 
ated in the parliamentary session of 1628, and on 2nd 
March, 1629, the doors at Westminster closed upon mem- 
bers, not to be reopened until 1640. Meanwhile, the King 
had gained a powerful recruit. Full justice has never yet 
been done to the greatness of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of 
Strafford, though Gardiner has vindicated his memory from 
the more puerile of the charges preferred against him by 
Macaulay and his school. From 1629 to 1640 Wentworth 
was by far the ablest adviser upon whom the King could 
rely, but it is a mistake to suppose that his influence was 
paramount. Apart from the fact that he was, throughout 
the whole period, immersed in his own local administrative 
work — first in Yorkshire and from 1633 in Ireland — there is 
no evidence to show that he ever possessed the confidence 
of the King in the same sense or to the same extent as 
Archbishop Laud. The historical pendulum is always 
swinging, but rarely has it swung so completely as in the 
case of William Laud. Well might he have exclaimed with 
Strafford : — 

Wherefore not feel sure 

That Time who in the twilight comes to mend 

All the fantastic day's caprice, consign 

To the low ground once more the ignoble term 

And raise the genius on his orb again — 

That time will do me right. 1 

The generation which sat at the feet of Macaulay learnt 
from his youthful omniscience that Laud was "a ridiculous 

1 Browning, Strafford. 



THE GATHERING STORM 125 

old bigot ". Many hold that Laud was mistaken as to his 
ends and singularly misguided as to his means ; but no 
educated person now regards him as ridiculous, and if he 
was bigoted it was a quality in which the Anglicans in the 
seventeenth century had no monopoly. " Laud," in the 
opinion of Dr. Mozley, " saved the English Church." Mr. 
Gladstone in his Academic Sketch 1 went out of his way to 
pay an almost unique tribute to his memory. " His scheme 
of Church polity, for his it largely was . . . still subsists in all 
its essential features not as personal or party opinion, but 
as embodied alike in statute or in usage, with no apparent 
likelihood of disappearance or decay." As to his wisdom 
men will continue to differ profoundly to the end of time, 
but most candid critics will admit his personal integrity and 
his single-minded aims. Even the Puritan May allows 
that " he had few vulgar and private vices ... in a word a 
man not altogether so bad (in his personal character) as 
unfit for the State of England ". Laud was in truth an 
idealist, and James I. had long ago perceived the fact. " He 
hath a restless spirit," he wrote to Villiers, " which cannot 
see when things are well but loves to toss and change and 
to bring matters to a pitch of reformation floating in his 
own brain." No one judged Laud more truly than the 
shrewd old Scot. But it is more to the purpose in our 
present connection to recall the fact, too often ignored, that 
this man of " narrow understanding," of a " nature, rash and 
irritable," this "ridiculous bigot" was, in Mr. Gladstone's 
words, "the first Primate of all England for many generations 
who proved himself by his acts to be a tolerant theologian. 
He was the patron not only of the saintly and heroic Bedell, 
but on the one hand of Chillingworth and Hales ; on the 
other of Ussher, Hall and Davenant, groups of names sharply 

1 Romanes Lecture, 1892. 



126 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

severed in opinion, but unitedly known in the history of 
ability and learning." No one, however, can deny, be he 
Laudian or Puritan, that Laud, more than any other single 
man, was responsible for the most unpopular features of the 
rule of " thorough " and for that " preamble to rebellion " of 
which we have already read. Hence the concentrated bitter- 
ness with which " little Canterbury " was assailed when in 
1640 the storm finally burst. 

The clouds had long been threatening. Clarendon may 
be right in the assertion that the country during these years 
enjoyed " the greatest calm and fullest measure of felicity" ; 
but the country seems to have been singularly obtuse in the 
recognition of its happiness. Parliament may have been 
fading into a distant and unregretted memory, but the hand 
of the executive was a heavy and insistent reality. The 
administration of justice was at once irregular and oppressive. 
On every side the "Prerogative" courts were straining to 
the uttermost their jurisdiction : the Court of the Marches ; 
the Council of the North ; the Stannary Courts in the far 
West; the Court of High Commission which "grew to such 
an excess of sharpness and severity as was not much less 
than the Romish Inquisition " ; T above all the famous Court 
of the Star Chamber. The Star Chamber in the sixteenth 
century had been the highly esteemed and appropriate 
appendage of a truly popular Dictatorship ; it had now 
degenerated into the oppressive instrument of an unpopular 
despotism. "The Court of Star Chamber hath abounded 
in extravagant censure . . . whereby his Majesty's subjects 
have been oppressed by grievous fines, imprisonments, 
stigmatisings, mutilations, whippings, pillories, gags, etc." 2 
Clarendon is not less emphatic in his condemnation than 
the Grand Remonstrance ; " holding for honourable that 

1 Grand Remonstrance. 2 Ibid. 



THE GATHERING STORM 127 

which pleased and for just that which profited. . . . Those 
foundations of right by which men valued their security- 
were to the apprehension and understanding of wise men 
never more in danger to be destroyed." How far these ap- 
prehensions were consistent with the "fullest measure of 
felicity ' ; it is not for an admirer of Clarendon to inquire. 

The ordinary methods of taxation were, in view of the 
supersession of Parliament, necessarily suspended. But 
money had to be raised to carry on the King's Government, 
and it was obtained by recourse to a variety of expedi- 
ents. Monopolies were granted, contrary to statute, in 
some common articles of daily use, such as soap, salt and 
wine ; duties were imposed upon merchandise " some so 
unreasonable that the sum of the charge exceeds the value 
of the goods " ; obsolete feudal obligations — such as dis- 
traint of knighthood — were revived ; the claims of the Crown 
to royal forests were asserted in the most extravagant way : 
in the Forest of Dean alone seventeen villages had sprung 
up and were now compelled to ransom their property and 
to come under the jurisdiction of the forest law ; profits 
were made from the sale of great offices of State, and a 
paltry fraud was practised upon the counties by the exaction 
of " coat and conduct " money. In these and other ways 
the necessities of the King were partially supplied. But 
of ail the devices to which a hard-pressed treasury found it 
convenient to resort, none aroused so much popular clamour 
or evoked such conspicuous resistance as the collection of 
ship-money. On 20th October, 1634, writs were issued to 
London and the other seaports bidding them deliver their 
quota of ships and men " to the Port of Portsmouth before 
the first day of March next ensuing ". The avowed reasons 
for the levy are contained in the writ. " Because we are given 
to understand that certain thieves, pirates and robbers of the 
sea as well Turks, enemies of the Christian name, as others, 



128 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

have spoiled and molested the shipping and merchandise of 
our own subjects and those of friendly powers." Further it 
refers to " the dangers which on every side in these times of 
war do hang over our heads ". About a year later similar 
writs were addressed to the inland counties. The first writ 
merely revived an ancient custom which had been enforced 
without protest so lately as 1626. As to the second, there 
is much doubt, but the judges gave a strong opinion in 
favour of its legality. " Your Majesty may . . . command 
all your subjects of this your kingdom at their charge to 
provide and furnish such a number of ships, etc. . . . for 
the defence and safeguard of the kingdom . . . and by law 
your Majesty may compel the doing thereof in case of refusal 
or refractoriness, and we are also of opinion that in such a 
case your Majesty is the sole judge both of the danger, and 
when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided ." 
London protested, but unavailingly, against the charge ; 
individuals, like Lord Say and Sele in Oxford and John 
Hampden in Buckinghamshire did the same. The name of 
Lord Falkland appears in the list of defaulters in respect of 
his Hertfordshire estates ; but Gardiner concludes that "he 
had no deliberate intention to oppose the Court," basing his 
opinion partly upon the fact that he appears to have paid 
ship-money without protest in Oxfordshire ; partly on the 
eagerness which he showed to serve the King against the 
Scots ; and partly on the lines in his elegy on Ben Jonson 
where he "went out of his way to compliment the King on 
his claim to the sovereignty of the seas ". 

How mighty Charles, amidst that weighty care, 
In which three kingdoms as their blessing share, 
Whom as it tends with ever watchfull eyes 
That neither power may force, nor art surprise 
So bounded by no shore, graspes all the maine 
And farre as Neptune claimes, extends his reigne. 

I must confess that in view of the very strong line which 



THE GATHERING STORM 129 

in the Long Parliament Falkland subsequently took against 
Lord Keeper Finch, in view also of his unequivocal attitude on 
the ship-money question, the grounds upon which Gardiner 
arrives at his conclusion seem to me strangely inadequate. 
Falkland may not have felt so strongly on the matter in 
1635 as he obviously did in 1641 ; but is there any sufficient 
ground for the assumption that his omission to pay his 
quota was accidental ? A man might very well commend 
the King's determination to assert English supremacy upon 
the high seas without approving the questionable means by 
which he sought to attain an entirely meritorious end. Nor 
can Falkland's anxiety to obtain the command of a troop 
of horse in the Scotch war be accepted as conclusive evi- 
dence that he approved the object of the war. Falkland 
was always ambitious of military service. His chagrin at 
being deprived of his command in Ireland, his anxiety to 
see service in the Low Countries have been already noted ; 
his impetuous courage in battle led, as we shall see, to his 
death in Newbury fight. 

But whatever be the truth as to Falkland's attitude in 
regard to the collection of ship-money, there can be little 
question as to the general unpopularity of the impost and 
still less as to the dismay caused by the judicial decision in 
its favour. In the famous test case Hampden's counsel 
relied primarily on " a multitude of records, beginning with 
one in King John's time and so downwards " to prove the 
illegality of taxation without consent ; and while admitting 
that " in this business of defence the suprema potestas is 
inherent in his Majesty, as part of his Crown and Kingly 
dignity," they contended that such potestas must under 
ordinary circumstances be exercised in and through Par- 
liament. In a sudden emergency the King no doubt might 
and must act on behalf of the nation ; but in what sense 
could emergency be pleaded in 1635 ? To all men it was 
9 



i 3 o FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

notorious that ship-money was merely one in a series of de- 
vices to enable the King to raise money without the disagree- 
able necessity of summoning Parliament. The judgment 
in the King's favour was based upon the most extravagant 
interpretation of the doctrine of Prerogative. " I have gone 
already very high," said Sir Robert Berkeley, in his judg- 
ment, " I shall go yet to a higher contemplation of the 
fundamental policy of our laws : which is this that the King 
of mere right ought to have, and the people of mere duty 
are bound to yield unto the King supply for the defence 
of the kingdom". It has been the fashion to assume that 
judgment in favour of the Crown was due to mere servility 
on the part of the judges. This may or may not be true. 
On the other hand, the judgment may have been perfectly 
good in law. These matters are too high for the layman. 
What is certain is, that whether good or bad in law, the 
judgment was in its political effects infinitely mischievous. 
Clarendon not merely admits but insists upon this. " I 
cannot but take the liberty to say that the circumstances 
and proceedings in those new extraordinary cases, stratagems 
and impositions were very unpolitic, and even destructive to 
the services intended." People are much more roused " by 
injustice than by violence ". Men who paid their quota 
more or less willingly were terrified by the grounds on which 
the judgment was based. It was " logic that left no man 
anything which he might call his own ". " Undoubtedly," 
he adds, " my Lord Finch's speech . . . made ship-money 
much more abhorred and formidable than all the commit- 
ments by the Council-table and all the distresses taken by the 
sheriffs in England. . . . Many sober men who have been 
clearly satisfied with the conveniency, necessity and justice of 
many sentences, depart notwithstanding extremely offended 
and scandalised with the grounds, reasons and expressions 
of those who inflicted those censures." 



THE GATHERING STORM 131 

That there was a growing sense of uneasiness in the 
nation at large is clear not only from the testimony of 
Clarendon. That the ship-money agitation contributed largely 
to it is equally certain. But all other causes fade into 
insignificance as compared with the ecclesiastical policy of 
Archbishop Laud. I have already attempted to vindicate 
the greatness of his intellect, and the purity of his aims. 
None the less is it necessary to emphasise the mischievous 
results of his policy. A " man unfit for the State of Eng- 
land," is the judgment of the Puritan May. Even Clarendon 
admits that he was no statesman. " He did court persons 
too little, nor cared to make his designs and purposes appear 
as candid as they were, by showing them in any other dress 
than their own natural beauty and roughness ; and did not 
consider enough what men said or were like to say." His 
objects were partly disciplinary, partly doctrinal. On the 
one hand a " restoration of Church ceremonial and external 
worship " ; on the other, " a doctrinal clearance ; the sub- 
jugation of the Calvinistic spirit in the reformed Church of 
England ". l The task was difficult enough in England ; in 
Scotland it was hopeless. 

It had always been one of the objects dearest to the 
heart of Charles I. to bring the Scotch Church into complete 
conformity with that of England. His ambition was warmly 
seconded if not inspired by the Archbishop. On the part of 
Laud some ignorance as to Scotland might be excused : on 
the part of the King it was inexcusable. Charles must have 
known that the Scots were not only devoted on doctrinal 
grounds to the Presbyterian system, but that they clung 
passionately to their own Church organisation as a symbol of 
national independence. In 1633 the King, accompanied by 
the Archbishop, made a magnificent progress into his north- 

1 Mozley, Laud. 



i 3 2 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

ern kingdom. Then and there were sown the seeds destined 
to produce such a terrible harvest later on. What chiefly 
struck the King in Scotland was " the want of a Book of 
Common Prayer and uniform service to be kept in all the 
Churches, . . . and the want of canons for the uniformity of the 
same ". He determined with the aid of the Scotch bishops 
to supply these deficiencies, and in 1637 a new book of 
canons and a revised liturgy were published. The Scotch 
people desired neither reform of liturgy nor of discipline, 
least of all did they desire it at the hands of England. 
They had not thrown off the yoke of Rome to exchange it 
for the yoke of Canterbury. The new liturgy was appointed 
to be read for the first time on Sunday, 23rd July, 1637. 
The attempt to read it wa^ the signal for the outbreak of a 
riot in St. Giles' Cathedral — a riot which was in very truth 
" the preamble to revolution ". The Scotch bishops with 
difficulty escaped with their lives, and " the whole nation, 
with slight exceptions, bristled into resistance ". 1 The mo- 
tives of resistance were in part religious, in part political ; an 
attack upon the Presbyterian system from any quarter was 
hateful, from England it was intolerable. The attempt to 
force Anglican uniformity upon Scotland practically dis- 
solved the King's authority north of the Tweed. A pro- 
visional Government was set up in Edinburgh ; and on 27th 
February, 1638, the Scottish National Covenant "for the 
maintenance of the true religion and the King's person " was 
drawn up and very largely subscribed. The Scotch nation 
was practically unanimous in defence of the Established Church 
and national independence. The King now appointed the 
Marquis of Hamilton as High Commissioner and prepared 
to announce considerable concessions. The Covenanters 
regarded the concessions as inadequate : the King must not 

1 Gardiner. 



THE GATHERING STORM 133 

merely withdraw the new liturgy, but condemn it and 
acknowledge the justice of the protest against it. Mean- 
while, Hamilton summoned a General Assembly to meet at 
Glasgow. It met on 21st November, and after a week's 
wrangling was formally dissolved. The act of dissolution 
was, however, disregarded : the Assembly quietly continued 
its business. Every Act concerning the Church passed since 
1580 was abrogated ; episcopacy was abolished ; and a vin- 
dication of their proceedings was ordered to be sent " to all 
the sincere and good Christians " in England. War now 
became inevitable. " I have missed my end," wrote 
Hamilton, " in not being able to make your Majesty so 
considerable a party as will be able to curb the in- 
solency of this rebellious nation without assistance from 
England." 

What were the probabilities that such assistance would 
be forthcoming? Three months ago Wentworth had 
written to advise the King to make no further concessions 
to his Scotch subjects : but not to plunge precipitately into 
war. Garrison Berwick, Carlisle and the North of England 
strongly and at once : train the garrisons under good 
captains ; if the Scots show signs of submission treat them 
with all possible leniency and encouragement ; if not, make 
your preparations for effective coercion. Such was the 
advice of Wentworth ; but Wentworth had been for years 
in Ireland and was not likely to have learnt from his 
correspondence with Laud the strength or volume of the 
gathering discontent in England. Is money wanted for a 
Scotch war ? " In good faith every man will give it I hope 
from his children upon such an extremity as this, when no 
less verily than all we have comes thus to the stake. In a 
word, we are, God be praised, rich and able, and in this 
case it may justly be said, salus populi supremo, lex, and the 
King must not want our substance for the preservation of 



i 3 4 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

the whole." 1 Wentworth, it is clear, was quite deceived as 
to the prevailing temper in England. Events now moved 
rapidly. In January, 1639, the English nobles were sum- 
moned to appear in person, with their due quota of followers, 
for the defence of the borders. The Earl of Arundel was 
appointed Commander in Chief, and Lord Holland General 
of the Horse, with Lord Essex as second in command. 
Clarendon deplores the snub to Essex, " the most popular 
man in the kingdom, and the darling of the swordmen " ; 
but Holland was a favourite of the Queen, and in war as 
in politics petticoat influence was becoming supreme. On 
14th February the Covenanters published a manifesto 
appealing from the King to the English people. A fortnight 
later the King's reply was published, and was appointed to 
be read in every parish church throughout the land. 2 

It was this proclamation which called Falkland forth 
from his retirement at Tew. Whether the summons 
addressed to the English nobility would technically extend 
to a Scotch peer, residing in England, is not clear. But 
Falkland stood upon no technicalities. He applied for the 
command of a troop of horse, and, according to Clarendon, 
received a promise that he should get it. If so, the promise 
was not fulfilled, and Falkland " went a volunteer with the 
Earl of Essex ". His choice of a leader is significant ; not 
the Catholic Arundel, nor the courtier Holland, but the 
chivalrous and liberal-minded Essex. For a war which 
was caused by the interference of " churchmen of the 
greatest power in England " Falkland can have had little 
enthusiasm, but his sense of personal loyalty was strong 
and his military ardour was as yet undimmed by the hideous 
spectacle of a fratricidal war. 

Thus the Convivium at Tew was finally broken up. 
The feelings inspired among the members of the coterie by 

1 Strafford, Letters, ii., 189. 2 Rushworth, ii., 798. 



THE GATHERING STORM 135 

the withdrawal of their host are finely expressed in Waller's 

well-known lines : — 

Brave Holland lands, and with him Falkland goes. 

Who hears this told, and does not straight suppose 

We send the Graces and the Muses forth 

To civilize and to instruct the North ? 

Not that these ornaments make swords less sharp, — 

Apollo bears as well his bow as harp ; 

And though he be the patron of that spring 

Where in calm peace the sacred virgins sing, 

He courage had to guard th' invaded throne 

Of Jove, and cast th' ambitious giants down. 

Ah ! noble friend ! with what impatience all 

That know thy worth, and know how prodigal 

Of thy great soul thou art (longing to twist 

Bays with that ivy which so early kiss'd 

Thy youthful temples), with what horror we 

Think on the blind events of war and thee ! 

To fate exposing that all-knowing breast 

Among the throng as cheaply as the rest ; 

Where oaks and brambles (if the copse be burn'd) 

Confounded lie, to the same ashes turn'd. 

A considerable amount of licence is required for a poet who 
can describe the objects of the expedition as an attempt " to 
civilize and to instruct the North," but the lines testify to 
Falkland's proverbial passion for military distinction, and 
the note of personal grief is unmistakable. 

Even more remarkable, perhaps, is the poem of Abra- 
ham Cowley, who was not, so far as we know, an intimate 
friend of Falkland's. His verses show, as Tulloch justly 
remarks, "the extraordinary impression which Falkland's 
character and abilities had made upon the more intellectual 
men of his time ". 

Great is thy charge, O North ; be wise and just ; 
England commits her Falkland to thy trust, 
Return him safe : learning would rather choose 
Her Bodley or her Vatican to lose. 
All things that are but writ or printed there, 
In his unbounded breast engraven are ; 



i 3 6 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

There all the sciences together meet, 
And every art does all his kindred greet, 
Yet justle not, nor quarrel ; but as well 
Agree as in some common principle. 

And this great prince of knowledge is by Fate 
Thrust into th' noise and business of the State. 
All virtues, and some customs of the court, 
Other men's labour, are at least his sport ; 
While we, who can no action undertake, 
Whom Idleness itself might learned make, — 
Who hear of nothing, and as yet scarce know 
Whether the Scots in England be or no, — 
Pace dully on, oft tire, and often stay, 
Yet see his nimble Pegasus fly away. 
'Tis Nature's fault, who did thus partial grow, 
And her estate of wit on one bestow, 
Whilst we, like youi.ger brothers, got at best 
But a small stock, and must work out the rest. 
How could he answer't, should the State think fit 
To question a monopoly of wit ? 
Such is the man whom we require, the same 
We lent the North ; untouch'd as is his frame, 
He is too good for war, and ought to be 
As far from danger as from fear he's free. 
Those men alone (and those are useful too), 
Whose valour is the only art they know, 
Were for sad war and bloody battle born ; 
Let them the State defend, and He adorn. 

Henceforward, Falkland was indeed " thrust into the noise 
and business of the State " ; from now until his death on 
Newbury field his life is part of the history of the time. 

The so-called " Bishops' Wars " were entirely barren in 
personal distinction to any one concerned, and not less 
barren, from the King's point of view, in political results. 
What part was played in them by " the volunteer with 
Essex " we have no means of knowing. That he would 
behave with gallantry is certain ; that he could derive any 
satisfaction from them is impossible. Neither among the 
English nobles, nor among the English people was there 



THE GATHERING STORM 137 

any enthusiasm for the Bellum Episcopate. " To my 
understanding we are altogether in as ill a posture to in- 
vade others or to defend others as we were a twelvemonth 
since, which is more than any man can imagine that is not 
an eye witness of it. The discontents here at home do 
rather increase than lessen. ... I fear the ways we run 
will not prevent the mischief that threatens us." So wrote 
Northumberland to Wentworth. Thomas May probably re- 
flects with accuracy the prevailing temper among the people : 
" Never were the people of England so averse from any 
war, as neither hating the enemy against whom, nor ap- 
proving the cause for which, they were engaged. Their 
own great sufferings made them easily believe that the 
Scots were innocent, and wronged by the same hand by 
which themselves had been oppressed. And for the cause, it 
was such wherein they could not desire a victory ; as they 
naturally supposed that the same sword which subdued the 
Scots must destroy their own liberties, and that the con- 
trivers of this war were equal enemies to both nations." 1 
The King was entirely deceived alike as to the strength of 
the Scotch feeling and as to their powers of resistance. 

Strafford was deceived on neither point. News had 
reached him that guns were being landed from Sweden at 
Leith. "Believe it," he wrote to Windebank, "they fly high." 
They did ; and their preparations for resistance were on a 
scale with their ambition. They raised an army of more 
than 20,000 men, well found and well disciplined, many of 
them seasoned veterans who had seen service in Germany, 
and placed it under the command of Alexander Leslie. 

The King was at the head of an army slightly superior 
in numbers to the Scots, but in all else inferior. Badly led, 
ill-armed, ill-fed, undisciplined, and, worst of all, entirely 
lacking in enthusiasm for the cause in which they were to 
fight, the English troops would have had small chance 

1 Hist, of Long Parliament, p. 46 (ed. 1854). 



138 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

against the Scotch. But the issue was never actually joined. 
Leslie took up his position on Duns Law — a hill which 
commanded all the roads from Berwick into Scotland : the 
King faced him on the Tweed. That the Covenanters could 
have swept the English peasants before them is hardly 
doubtful, but Leslie was as wise as he was brave. An 
invasion of England might have brought military glory to 
the Scots, but it would almost infallibly have converted half- 
friendly opponents into determined foes. Negotiations 
were opened between the two camps ; a peace was patched 
up at Berwick (18th June, 1639), an d tne ^ rst Bishops' War 
was at end. 

The pacification of Berwick proved to be a hollow truce. 
" Nobody," as Clarendon pithily observes, " meant what 
others believed he did." The English army was disbanded, 
its leaders were dismissed with scant courtesy, and in August 
Charles was back in London. The first thing he did was 
to order the Scotch report of the negotiations at Berwick to 
be burnt by the common hangman. The second was to 
summon Wentworth to his aid. Wentworth reached Eng- 
land in September, and for the next fourteen months he 
was in every sense first minister of the Crown. In January, 
1640, he received the long deferred mark of royal favour, 
being created Earl of Strafford. 

Strafford, like Bacon, was a thorough believer in Parlia- 
ment as an instrument of Government in the hands of a 
strong ruler. He had bent Parliament to his will in Dublin ; 
might he not succeed in doing the same at Westminster? 
Scotland had still to be subdued ; and subdued it could not 
be, as Strafford was statesman enough to perceive, unless by 
some means the King could enlist against it the national 
sentiment and the material resources of England and Ire- 
land. With Ireland there was not much difficulty. In 
March, 1640, Strafford was over in Dublin and easily secured 
from the Catholic majority in Parliament four subsidies for 



THE GATHERING STORM 139 

the suppression of the Presbyterian heresy in Scotland. A 
month later he was back in London to take his place in 
the Parliament which had been called on his advice. 

On 13th April, 1640, the Short Parliament met; the 
experiment of " Personal Rule," protracted for eleven weary 
years, was a confessed failure ; the system of " thorough " 
had broken down. The King was sanguine enough to sup- 
pose that Parliament would resent the Scotch " presumption 
in their thought of invading England," and " would express 
a very sharp sense of their insolence and carriage towards 
the King and provide remedies proportionable ". Not that 
the King desired the counsel of Parliament; they were 
expressly told by the Lord Keeper that he did not ; still less 
were they required " to interpose in any office of mediation ". 
What the King wanted was that they should with all con- 
venient speed " give his Majesty such a supply as he might 
provide for the vindication of his honour. If they would vote 
supplies promptly they should have time enough afterwards 
to represent any grievances to him." 

Many men of distinction entered Parliament for the 
first time in 1640. Among them was Lord Falkland who 
as a Scotch peer was eligible (before 1707) for a seat in the 
House of Commons, and found one at Newport, Isle of 
Wight. Even the capital of " the island " could hardly 
expect in the era of Reform to escape political disfranchise- 
ment ; so Newport lost one of its two members in the " redis- 
tribution " of 1867, and finally ceased to be separately repre- 
sented in 1885. Let it, therefore, be recorded that there is no 
constituency in the United Kingdom which showed greater 
discrimination in the choice of representatives ; or, as perhaps 
it should be put, was more intelligently provided for by its 
patron. For Newport had the honour of returning to the 
House of Commons no less than five First Ministers of the 
Crown — General (afterwards first Earl) Stanhope; Sir Arthur 
Wellesley (Duke of Wellington) and Lord Palmerston, who 



140 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

were colleagues both in the representation of Newport and 
in Lord Liverpool's Government ; George Canning ; and 
William Lamb (afterwards Viscount Melbourne), who suc- 
ceeded to Canning's seat when the latter transferred his 
services to Seaford on accepting the Premiership in 1827. 
Newport also numbered among its representatives two dis- 
tinguished soldiers of the Spanish Succession War : General 
Webb — a prominent figure in Esmond — and the " Sala- 
mander " Lord Cutts ; William Fortescue, Master of the 
Rolls; Twiss, the biographer of Lord Eldon, and many- 
others known to fame. But among all these eminent men 
there is none to whom Newport can make so exclusive a 
proprietary claim as to Lord Falkland. He alone among 
them never obtained or sought the suffrages of any other 
constituency. Most of the members returned in 1640 were, 
like Falkland, new to Parliamentary life, and at their first 
meeting there was not unnatural embarrassment and hesita- 
tion. Then it was, " whilst men gazed upon each other 
looking who should begin," that John Pym literally leapt 
into the leadership. 

By birth a west-country squire, educated at Oxford, 
trained as a lawyer, Pym might now claim leadership not 
merely in virtue of intellect and character, but by length of 
Parliamentary experience. He had sat in the two last 
Parliaments of James I., and had distinguished himself by 
the vehemence of his views in regard to the enforcement of 
the laws against the Roman Catholics. He was one of the 
managers of the impeachment of Buckingham in 1626, and 
two years later took a leading part in the debates on the 
Petition of Right. On the dissolution of the third Parlia- 
ment in 1629 Pym went into retirement and emerged only 
to appear in that of 1640. The temper of the new House 
resolute but moderate, was admirably reflected in the 
great speech in which Pym unfolded his impeachment of 
the Government. The speech was of unprecedented length 



THE GATHERING STORM 141 

("a set discourse of about two hours"), and "very plain," 
but the House listened and approved. Towards the King 
personally Pym's tone was one " of profound reverence," 
but by the " long intromission of Parliaments many un- 
warrantable things had been practised, notwithstanding the 
great virtues of his Majesty". That was the point on 
which Pym throughout laid stress. The list of specific 
grievances was long, but the root of the matter lay in 
the " intromission of Parliaments ". " The powers of Parlia- 
ment," he declared, " are to the body politic as the rational 
faculties of the soul to a man." It was almost an echo 
of Eliot's language in 1624, and it struck the »keynote of 
much that was to come. But the King wanted not debate 
but supply. While the Commons talked, Convocation 
voted. On 22nd April, at Laud's bidding, the clergy 
granted six subsidies. The Commons still dallied, and on 
the 23rd resolved that the redress of grievances must have 
precedence. " Till the liberties of the House and kingdom 
were known they knew not whether they had anything to 
give or no." Strafford urged frank concession ; Vane wanted 
to strike a bargain. If the House would grant twelve sub- 
sidies, the claim to ship-money should be unreservedly aban- 
doned. Never did Strafford show greater wisdom. The 
House would not be bullied ; it might still be led. Vane 
threatened : " twelve subsidies or nothing ". The need was 
undoubtedly pressing ; despatches from Scotland announced 
a renewal of the war. The Commons were unmoved. 
Vane told the King they would not " give one penny " ; and 
on 5th May the Short Parliament was dissolved. 

Who was responsible for the fiasco ? Clarendon, writing 
in the light of subsequent events, throws the blame on 
the Secretary of State, the elder Vane, who "acted that 
part maliciously and to bring all into confusion . . . being 
known to have an implacable hatred against the Earl of 
Strafford . . . whose destruction was then upon the anvil ". 



i 4 2 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Gardiner, while declaring that Clarendon's account of this 
session is " nearly worthless," offers no alternative explana- 
tion except that dissolution was unavoidable. Whitelocke 
attributes it — apparently without any authority — to Laud. 
All good men deplored the breach : " there could not a greater 
damp have seized upon the spirits of the whole nation than 
this dissolution caused "} The more violent rejoiced. " All 
is well," said St. John, "it must be worse before it is better." 
The King was dismayed at his own handiwork. " He was 
heartily sorry for what he had done and denied having 
given such authority " to Vane. He even had thoughts, if 
Clarendon may be trusted, of recalling Parliament by pro- 
clamation. Such procedure was, of course, impossible ; the 
die was cast. 

Falkland had been a silent but, as we learn from his col- 
league, a deeply interested spectator of these events. The 
effect produced upon his mind was highly favourable to 
Parliament and far otherwise to the Court. " From the 
debates which were then managed with all imaginable 
gravity and sobriety, he contracted such a reverence to 
Parliaments, that he thought it really impossible they could 
ever produce mischief or inconvenience to the kingdom ; or 
that the kingdom could be tolerably happy in the inter- 
mission of them. And from the unhappy and unseasonable 
dissolution of that convention, he harboured, it may be, some 
jealousy and prejudice to the Court, towards which he was 
not before immoderately inclined." 2 

There were other good men besides Falkland who from 
these events contracted some prejudice against the Court. 
But in May, 1640, Charles might still have saved the situa- 
tion. Strafford, if given a free hand, might have saved it 
for him. In November, the Crown, discredited by a second 

Clarendon. 2 Clarendon, vii., 230. 



THE GATHERING STORM 143 

military failure, was compelled to confront a Parliament not 
unjustly incensed and not unreasonably suspicious. 

The events which filled the interval must be briefly 
told. 

After the dissolution of Parliament, Convocation, with 
questionable legality and still more questionable wisdom, con- 
tinued to sit, and passed a series of canons binding on clergy 
and laity alike. 1 Desperate efforts were made to raise 
money; ship-money, coat and conduct money, forced loans 
— all the familiar expedients were tried. The Genoese 
bankers would not lend without the security of the city ; 
the Pope would find funds but only on the impossible con- 
dition that Charles would declare himself a papist. Little 
money was actually raised except from the clergy and from 
the Roman Catholic laity at home. Riots broke out in 
London ; the apprentices turned out in crowds : the life of 
Laud was threatened. Meanwhile, by hook or by crook, 
an army must be raised to resist the Scotch invasion. 
Northumberland and Conway were appointed to the chief 
commands ; Essex was again passed over, though " he 
might easily have been caressed ". The troops raised by 
the press-gang were from the first sullen and averse to the 
war, Some turned upon their officers and murdered them ; 
many deserted ; all became a terror to the country through 
which they marched. " The arch-knaves of the country " : 
so they were described by Sir Jacob Astley. "We are 
daily assaulted by sometimes 500 of them together," wrote 
Colonel Lunsford, "and have hurt and killed some in our 
own defence." Such an ill-disciplined rabble was not likely 
to oppose successfully the invasion of the Covenanters. On 
20th August the Scots, 25,000 strong, crossed the Tweed at 

1 Mr. W. H. Hutton, an authority entitled to high respect, takes the 
view that the dissolution of Parliament did not necessarily dissolve Convoca- 
tion [cf. Hist. English Church, pp. 80, 87). Laud held otherwise and cf. 
Gardiner, ix., 142. 



144 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Coldstream. Strafford was summoned from Ireland to take 
command against them. By 27th August he was at York, 
but racked by disease and utterly worn out he could get 
no farther. Conway was ordered to hold the line of the 
Tyne ; but on 28th August the Scots forded it at Newburn, 
and the English troops fled in panic before them. Two 
days later the Scots seized Newcastle ; Northumberland and 
Durham were soon in their hands. In possession of the 
Northern Counties ; convinced of the support of the Parlia- 
mentary leaders ; surrounded by every evidence of popular 
goodwill, they could afford to wait. 

Meanwhile, the King, putting aside a petition for a new 
Parliament, decided to have recourse to a constitutional de- 
vice untried for centuries. A great Council of Peers was 
summoned to confer with the King, and met at York on 
24th September. The King immediately announced that 
he had resolved to call a new Parliament in November. 
Commissioners were appointed to treat with the Scots, who 
with fervent protestations of loyalty declared " that their 
grievances were the cause of their being in arms," and begged 
the King "to settle a firm and durable peace by advice of a 
Parliament ". In October negotiations were opened at Ripon, 
and there a treaty was concluded. There was to be a truce 
for two months during which the Scots were to receive ^"850 
a day ; the Northern Counties were to be assigned to them 
as winter quarters, and the terms of a definitive treaty were 
to be referred to the coming Parliament for adjudication. 

While the Scots " sat still " about Newcastle the elec- 
tions to the new Parliament were held. The meeting of 
that Parliament opens a new chapter in English history and 
in Falkland's life. 



CHAPTER II 

THE LONG PARLIAMENT: FALKLAND AND "THOROUGH" 

T^HE Long Parliament met on 3rd November, 1640. 
The temper of the members was vastly different from 
that which had animated the House when it assembled in 
the spring of the same year. " There was observed," says 
Clarendon, "a marvellous elated countenance in most of 
the members of Parliament before they met together in 
the House; the same men who six months before were 
observed to be of very moderate tempers and to wish 
that gentle methods might be applied without opening the 
wound too wide and exposing it to the air, and rather to 
cure what was amiss than too strictly to make inquisition 
into the causes and origin of the malady, talked now in 
another dialect both of things and of persons." Some 
days before Parliament assembled Pym had met Hyde 
in Westminster Hall, and conferring together upon the 
state of affairs had told him that " they must now be of 
another temper than they were at the last Parliament, that 
they must not only sweep the House clean below, but 
must pull down all the cobwebs which hung in the top and 
corners that they might not breed dust and so make a 
foul House hereafter; that they had now an opportunity 
to make their country happy by removing all grievances 
and pulling up the causes of them by the roots, if all men 
would do their duties, and used much other sharp discourse 
to him to the same purpose, by which it was discerned that 
10 145 



146 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

the wildest and boldest counsels and overtures would find 
a much better reception than those of a more moderate 
alloy, which fell out accordingly." 

The reasons for this change of temper are not difficult 
to discern. Much, as we have seen, had happened since 
the dissolution of the Short Parliament on 5th May. 
During the last six months " Thorough " made its last 
desperate venture. As in 1629 so in 1640 members of 
Parliament were imprisoned ; ship-money and coat and 
conduct money, despite the resolutions of the late Parlia- 
ment, were collected ; forced loans were extorted, and a 
desperate effort was made to raise an army against the 
Scots. All to no purpose. The second Bishops' War 
was a further revelation of militar)^ incompetency and 
divided counsels. Nothing remained but to buy off the 
hostility of the Scots, and in order to raise the purchase 
money Parliament must again meet. Clarendon notes two 
ominous events of the first day of the new Parliament. 
The King, instead of going in state to open Parliament, 
sneaked down the river with all possible privacy. Gardiner, 
whom the King proposed to place in the Speaker's Chair, 
failed to obtain a seat, and in his place the House chose 
William Lenthall, the purchaser of Falkland's property at 
Burford, a man, according to Clarendon, "of timorous 
nature and quite unequal to the difficult task of controlling 
Parliament in the interest of the King ". 

Having seen something of the general political temper 
of the new Parliament, it is desirable to examine its 
personnel and to describe its aspect. There was, as yet, 
no clear definition of parties. The King had personal 
friends in both Houses, and the Court had its followers, 
but there was no ministerial party, and the opposition 
though elaborately organised cannot be described as a 
" party ". A small minority showed itself unwilling to 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 147 

proceed to the extremest measures against Strafford, but 
until the development of the attack upon the Church, 
Parliament was practically unanimous in its desire to 
amend existing abuses and " pluck up the causes of them 
by the roots ". 

The House of Lords consisted at this time, in addition 
to the 26 Spiritual Peers, of 123 Temporal Peers, of whom 
no less than two-thirds owed their seats to the reigning 
King and his father. 1 In that House Francis Russell, 
Earl of Bedford, occupied a position of acknowledged pre- 
eminence. " A wise man," says Clarendon, " and of too 
great and plentiful a fortune to wish a subversion of the 
Government." He was the friend of Pym, a Puritan in 
character as in creed, and a man of agreeable temper and 
sound judgment. He died unfortunately before the first 
session was half through. Much afflicted, according to 
Clarendon, " with the passion and fury which he perceived 
his party inclined to : insomuch that he declared to some 
of near trust with him ' that he feared the rage and madness 
of this Parliament would bring more prejudice and mischief 
to the kingdom than it had ever sustained by the long in- 
termission of Parliaments ' ". He was succeeded in the leader- 
ship of the party in the House of Lords by Hampden's 
friend, William Fiennes, Viscount Say and Sele. Clarendon 
speaks of the latter as " the oracle of those who were called 
Puritans in the worst sense," and as " a notorious enemy to 
the Church " ; and, making all allowance for Clarendon's 
prejudice on such a matter, there can be no doubt that Say 
and Sele was a violent opponent not merely of the Laudian 
system but of the established order in the Church. Among 
other prominent members of the House of Lords it must 
suffice to mention the Earl of Essex, a chivalrous opponent 
and a brave soldier, but ultimately pushed aside by extremer 

1 Sanford, Studies. 



148 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

men ; his brother-in-law — by a second marriage — William Sey- 
mour, Earl of Hertford — best known to fame as the husband 
of Arabella Stuart ; Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland 
and Lord High Admiral of England ; Robert Rich, Earl of 
Warwick, who secured for his party the supreme advantage 
of the command of the sea ; his brother Henry, Earl of Hol- 
land; his son-in-law Lord Mandeville (Kimbolton), eldest 
son of the Earl of Manchester — a man of unbounded popu- 
larity among the Puritans whom he courted and (if Clar- 
endon's hint be accepted) sumptuously sntertained ; Robert 
Greville, Lord Brooke, as strong in action as he was eloquent 
of tongue ; Wharton, Pembroke and others. 

Among the 493 members of the House of Commons 
there were not a few members of commanding ability. A 
glance at the returns will show that most of the constituencies 
returned men either of high social standing or of distinguished 
talents. Two Verneys, Sir Ralph and Sir Edmund, father 
and son, found seats for boroughs in Buckinghamshire ; Sid- 
ney Godolphin, with whom we are already familiar, 1 sat for 
Helston ; Edmund Waller for St. Ives ; Edward Hyde for 
Saltash ; two famous lawyers, Oliver St. John and John 
Maynard, represented Totness; Denzil Holies, Strafford's 
brother-in-law and one of the ablest men in the House, sat 
for Dorchester; Sir John Culpepper and Sir Edward Dering 
for Kent ; Nathaniel Fiennes — as bitter as his father against 
the Church — represented Banbury ; his brother, James Fiennes, 
with Lord Wenman, represented the county of Oxford, while 
the University found very distinguished burgesses in Sir 
Thomas Roe and John Selden ; Sir Arthur Hazelrig came in 
for Leicestershire; Sir Ralph Hopton for Wells; Sir Benjamin 
Rudyard and the elder Vane for Wilton, and the younger 
Vane for Kingston-on-Hull; William Lenthall, the Speaker, 
represented Woodstock ; Cromwell — unnoticed as yet — Cam- 

1 Cf. supra, p. 88. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 149 

bridge town ; John Hampden, returned both for Wendover 
and Bucks, elected to sit for the county ; Pym with William, 
Lord Russell as his colleague sat for Tavistock ; Falkland, 
as in the Short Parliament, for Newport, Isle of Wight. I 
have found space to mention only a tithe of the famous men 
who composed " that synod of inflexible patriots with some, 
that conclave of traitorous rebels with others " ; x but I have 
named enough to establish the conclusion that rarely, if ever, 
has there been a Parliament in England which contained so 
large a proportion of exceptionally brilliant and distinguished 
men. Falkland and Hyde were destined to a special place 
as the leaders of the middle party — the constitutional royal- 
ists, but among the rest two men stand out pre-eminent, John 
Hampden and John Pym. 

Of Hampden we have an imperishable portrait from the 
pen of Clarendon. " He was of that rare affability and 
temper in debate and of that seeming humility and sub- 
mission of judgment, as if he brought no opinion with him, 
but a desire of information and instruction. Yet he had so 
subtle a way of indicating and under the notion of doubts 
insinuating his objections that he left his opinions with those 
from whom he pretended to learn and receive them, and 
even with them who were able to preserve themselves from 
his infusions and discern those opinions to be fixed in him 
with which they could not comply, he always left the char- 
acter of an ingenuous and conscientious person. He was 
indeed a very wise man and of great parts, and possessed 
the most absolute spirit of popularity, that is the most ab- 
solute faculties to govern the people, of any man I ever 
knew." By the side of John Hampden sat John Pym. 

Pym, as we have seen, had leapt into leadership during 
the Short Parliament ; his authority in the new Parliament 
soon came to be acknowledged on all hands. He was 

1 Hallam. 



150 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

essentially a " House of Commons " man ; the first and per- 
haps the greatest Parliamentary leader whom this country 
has produced. A financier of really first-rate ability; a 
singularly clear and convincing speaker ; a " consummate 
Parliamentary tactician " ; a tireless and vigilant leader, Pym 
was unquestionably the man who impressed upon the House 
of Commons its modern aspect, and who went far to define 
its party system and its methods of procedure. From the 
day of meeting until the day of his death he was the soul of 
the opposition in Parliament and outside, and was, for all 
practical purposes, the leader not merely of a party but of 
the nation. Pym sat on the Speaker's left "close to the 
bar of the House " ; Hampden sat next him, and almost 
immediately opposite to them the equally inseparable com- 
panions, Falkland and Hyde. Among others who sat on 
the Speaker's right were the elder Vane, " at the upper end 
of the front bench," the Solicitor-General Sir Edward Her- 
bert, Sir Benjamin Rudyard, Oliver Cromwell and Sir John 
Culpepper. 1 It is obvious, therefore, that apart from per- 
sonal association such as that of Hyde and Falkland, there 
was little significance in the choice of seats, though the 
extremists sat mostly on the Speaker's left. 

If the personnel of the new House was striking, the 
issues before it were momentous. Amidst the mass of ques- 
tions into the consideration of which the House immediately 
plunged three stand out as of pre-eminent importance : the 
attack upon Strafford and other agents of " Thorough " ; the 
destruction of the machinery of personal government ; and 
Ecclesiastical Reform. In regard to the two first Falkland 
took a prominent, in regard to the last a leading, part. 

The new Parliament was scarcely more than a week old 
when, on the nth November, Pym suddenly rose and in- 
formed a startled House that "he had something of import- 

1 D'Ewes ap. Sanford. Cf. also Verney's Notes of the Long Parliament. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 151 

ance to acquaint the House with, and desired that the 
outward room be kept from strangers and that the outward 
doors upon the stairs be locked ". This being done, Pym 
put up Sir John Clotworthy, an Ulster settler, who sat for 
Maldon, to give an account of Strafford's "tyrannical 
carnage " in Ireland, of the " army he had raised there to 
invade Scotland " and other misdeeds. A proposal for the 
immediate impeachment of the Lord Lieutenant " found an 
universal approbation and consent ". A Committee of seven 
members, including Pym and Hampden, was appointed to 
consider all the information against the Earl of Strafford, 
and within an hour or two reported that " they did find just 
cause to accuse the Earl of Strafford of high treason, and 
further that the House should desire the Lords that he may 
be sequestered from Parliament and committed, and that 
within some convenient time this House will resort to their 
Lordships with particular accusations and articles against 
him ". 

It was on this report that Falkland delivered his maiden 
speech. He was no friend to Strafford or his system. But 
the House was asked to proceed against him on imperfect 
information and in hot haste, and he begged them to con- 
sider "whether it would not suit better with the gravity of 
their proceedings first to digest many of those particulars 
which had been mentioned by a Committee before they 
sent up to accuse him," though for his own part he was 
" abundantly satisfied that there was enough to charge him ". 

Pym strongly opposed Falkland's suggestion. Now, as 
throughout the next three years, he was in possession of 
exceptional information. Rumours had reached him of an 
intended coup d'etat. Strafford might at that moment be on 
his way to the House of Lords to delate the Puritan leaders 
for treasonable negotiations with the Scotch rebels ; the 
King was to support the accusation in arms. With Strafford 



152 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

to organise it, the abortive attempt of January, 1642, might 
have been successfully anticipated in November, 1640. But 
even for Strafford Pym was too quick. Forms were im- 
patiently brushed aside. "To delay is simple ruin," said 
Pym ; " once let Strafford get to the King and Parliament 
will be dissolved." There was no delay. The House fol- 
lowed Pym's advice, and Pym himself carried up the mes- 
sage of the Commons to the Lords. As the Lords debate 
the question Strafford himself, having heard of the impeach- 
ment, strides in "with proud gloaming countenance". 
Greeted with shouts of "withdraw," "withdraw," he is com- 
pelled in confusion to retire. The Lords assent to the 
Commons' demand. Strafford is called in and stands, " but 
is commanded to kneel ?nd on his knees to hear the sen- 
tence ". He leaves the House in custody of Black-Rod, " no 
man capping to him before whom that morning the greatest 
in England would have stood discovered, all crying ' What 
is the matter ? ' " "A small matter, I warrant you," said the 
Earl. " Yes, indeed," shouted the crowd, " high treason is 
a small matter." 1 Pym had won the first round ; by night- 
fall the lion was caged. 

Months elapsed — months crowded with events of the 
highest significance — before the great Earl was brought to 
trial. The elaborate and complicated charges had to be 
formulated ; a multitude of preliminaries had to be settled ; 
and it was not until 22nd March, 1641, that the trial was 
actually opened in Westminster Hall. 

Baillie's account of the great trial,' 2 contained in a report 
to the Presbytery of Irvine, is singularly vivid and detailed. 
He brings the whole scene before us : the King's throne set 
but vacant ; the King himself anxiously watching the pro- 
ceedings from a box with the Queen, the Princess Mary and 
the Prince Elector " little more regarded than if they had 

1 Baillie, i., 272. a Ibid., i., 313-50. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 153 

been absent". Crowds of ladies in boxes " for which they 
paid much money " ; the Lord Steward on the great wool- 
sack ; " two other sacks for the Lord Keeper and the 
Judges " ; the peers fully robed ; a little desk set in the 
midst " where the prisoner Strafford stands and sits as he 
pleaseth, together with his keeper, Sir William Balfour, the 
Lieutenant of the Tower"; other desks for the prisoner's 
secretaries and " counsell-at-law " ; the eager crowd of the 
Commons ; the general aspect of a great society function 5 
" the most glorious assemblie the Isle could afford, yet the 
gravity not such as I expected " ; in the intervals " the Lords 
always got to their feet, walked and clattered ; the Lower 
House men too loud clattering" ; many picnics in the Hall 
itself; "much public eating not only of confections but of 
flesh and bread, bottles of beer and wine going thick from 
mouth to mouth without cups ". But though the scene was 
gay the matter was grave, and in the main, with some un- 
fortunate exceptions, the conduct of it was not unworthy. 

Disentangled from technicalities the charge against 
Strafford was in reality twofold : that he had ruled tyranni- 
cally in Ireland, and that he meant to make Ireland the 
"jumping off ground "for an attack on the liberties of Eng- 
land. The case rested mainly on the notes taken by the 
elder Vane of Strafford's advice to the King in Council. Of 
these entirely confidential notes the younger Vane had by 
an accident got view ; he copied them and showed them to 
Pym. The incriminating words were : " Your Majesty 
having tried all ways (against the Scots) and being refused, 
in this case of extreme necessity and for the safety of your 
kingdom, you are loose and absolved from all rules of 
Government. You are acquitted before God and man. 
You have an army in Ireland ; you may employ it to re- 
duce this kingdom." Strafford defended himself with splen- 
did courage, with touching eloquence and consummate 



154 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

ingenuity. And he was obviously producing an effect. 
" This kingdom " might well apply, as he contended it did, 
not to England but to Scotland. " Three whole king- 
doms," says May, "were his accusers, and eagerly sought 
in one death a recompense of all their sufferings." But 
Strafford met them face to face. " Never man acted such 
a part on such a stage," writes Bulstrode Whitelocke, " with 
more wisdom, constancy and eloquence, with greater 
wisdom, temper and with better grace in all his words." 
Even grim Baillie allows that "the matter and expression 
was exceeding brave ; doubtless if he had grace and civil 
goodness he is a most eloquent man." Strafford was visibly 
gaining ground ; the impeachment was foredoomed to 
failure ; even prejudiced judges could not convict on such 
evidence. But the " inflexibles" were determined that 
Strafford should die. The trial had already dragged on for 
more than a fortnight when suddenly the impeachment was 
abandoned. A Bill of Attainder was brought in on ioth 
April, and on 21st April it passed the Commons. The assent 
of the Lords and the King was still necessary. On the 23rd 
the King wrote to his faithful servant to assure him " upon 
the word of a King " that he should not suffer " in life, honour 
or fortune ". Then came negotiations with the Puritan 
leaders. Bedford, Say and Sele, and Pym himself were to 
have high office. Not even this could stay the hand of the 
" opposition ". " Stone dead hath no fellow " was the grim 
verdict of Essex. By the 8th of May the Bill was through 
the Lords ; Strafford's fate now rested with the King. Fears 
for the safety of the Queen at last overcame his hesitation ; 
the Royal assent was given on ioth May, and two days later, 
on 1 2th May, Strafford was brought to the block. At last 
the fiery and fretted spirit was at rest. 

What was Falkland's part in this great tragedy ? He 
had no love for the man, and he detested his methods. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 155 

But when the crisis came he deprecated unseemly haste or 
apparent anxiety to snatch a verdict. On nth November, 
when the matter was first mooted, he spoke as we have seen 
in favour of deliberation. Notwithstanding this, he was 
named on 30th November as a member of the Commons' 
Committee to " meet with a Committee of the Lords concern- 
ing the examination of their members in the accusation of the 
Earl of Strafford," and on 30th January, 1641, he with his 
colleagues received the thanks of the House for " the great 
pains they have taken in preparing and drawing up the 
charge ". On 1 8th February the House of Commons was 
thrown into unnecessary excitement by the news that the 
Lords had granted Strafford an extension of time for the 
preparation of his defence. Again Falkland showed his 
fairness and moderation by rebuking " this childish ebul- 
lition of feeling," and approving the reasonable conduct of 
the Lords. " The Lords," he said, " have done no more 
than they conceived to be necessary in justice. It would 
be impossible to show Strafford a better courtesy than to 
jar with the Upper House or to retard their own proceed- 
ings." 1 Falkland's wise counsel was accepted by the House. 
Questions relating to Strafford's trial were constantly under 
debate during the early months of 1641, and on 6th March 
a Committee of forty-eight was named to meet a Com- 
mittee of the Lords concerning the trial. Of this Committee 
also Falkland was a member, and some days later he acted 
as one of the reporters of the Conference held with the 
Lords. Finally, on 21st April, he supported with vote and 
voice the motion for the third reading of the Bill of At- 
tainder. Two hundred and four voted with him against fifty- 
nine in favour of Strafford. Among the minority Digby 
and Selden were the most conspicuous. 

Falkland, therefore, equally with Pym must be held re- 

1 D'Ewes ap. Gardiner, ix., 292. 



156 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

sponsible for Strafford's death. True that at eveiy stage 
in the proceedings there is evidence that Falkland desired 
to treat the accused with scrupulous fairness and considera- 
tion ; but at no point does he appear to have had any doubts 
as to his essential guilt. In the debate in the Commons on 
15th April, his intervention had done much to clear a con- 
fused issue. Strafford had throughout protested against the 
doctrine of cumulative treason. "He made," says Baillie, 
" one general answer, and almost in every article repeated it, 
though the point alleged against him were proved, yet it 
would be but a misdemeanour ; an 100 misdemeanours would 
not make one felonie, and an 100 felonies not one treason, 
being a crime of a different kind and nature." That 
Strafford was at least technically right no one can doubt, 
but Falkland brushed the subtleties impatiently aside. 
" How many haires' breadths makes a tall man, and how 
many makes a little man, noe man can well say, yet wee know 
a tall man when wee see him from a low man. Soe 'tis in 
this, how many illegal acts makes a treason is not certainly 
well known, but wee well know it when wee see." Strafford, 
he concluded, " in equity deserves to die ". 

Richard Baxter declares 1 that Falkland, out of regard 
for the King, was for sparing Strafford's life. " Now began 
the first breach among themselves, for the Lord Falkland, 
the Lord Digby and divers other able men were for the 
sparing his life, and gratifying the King, and not putting 
him on a thing so much displeasing him." Digby, it is 
true, not only voted, but spoke against the Bill of Attainder, 
not out of pity for Strafford, nor. yet out of regard for the 
King, but solely out of respect for the law : " I do not say, 
but the charges may represent him as a man worthy to 
die, and perhaps worthier than many a traitor. I do not 
say but they may justly direct us to enact that they shall 
1 Reliquice Baxteriana, p. 19, ap. Lewis, p. 82. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 157 

be treason for the future. But God keep me from giving 
judgment of death on any man upon a law made a posteriori. 
Let the mark be set on the door where the plague is, and 
then let him that will enter, die. I believe his practices in 
themselves as high, as tyrannical, as any subject ever ventured 
on ; and the malignity of them largely aggravated by those 
rare abilities of his, whereof God has given him the use, but 
the devil the application. In one word, I believe him to be 
still that grand apostate to the Commonwealth, who must 
not expect to be pardoned in this world till he be despatched 
to the other. And yet let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, my 
hand must not lie to that despatch." Apart from Baxter, 
however, there is no evidence that Falkland associated him- 
self with Digby on this question. On the contrary he voted 
and spoke against him. But pitiless as he was towards the 
man whom he regarded as a traitor both to his country and 
his King, he was characteristically compassionate towards 
the innocent children who were barbarously involved in the 
penalties of their father's crime. " Seeing Lord Strafford's 
children proceeded as well from his innocent wife as his own 
guilty person, 'tis better they should be spared in their estates 
for the innocents' sake than punished for the guilty." 

As to Falkland's attitude towards Strafford there can 
therefore be no reasonable doubt. He pursued him to his 
death with a relentlessness almost as keen as that of Pym. 
Does his conduct arouse a sense of incongruity ? Within 
twelve months Falkland was to become the confidential ad- 
viser of the Sovereign whom Strafford died to save. Does 
the fact raise a jarring note in the perfect harmony of Falk- 
land's character and career? Strafford himself, be it re- 
membered, had taken office under the Crown less than four 
months after the death of Buckingham against whose em- 
ployment he had protested so loudly. But a parallel does not 
afford an explanation, still less an excuse. Is there in the 



158 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

attitude of Falkland towards Strafford anything out of har- 
mony with his personal character or at variance with his 
political principles? The suggestion that it was inspired by 
a personal grudge may be dismissed as absurd and unthink- 
able. The mere fact that Strafford had stepped into the 
elder Falkland's shoes in Dublin is the sole foundation for a 
piece of malevolent gossip. But the fact of persistent and 
unrelenting opposition remains. 

It is not difficult to understand and explain it. These 
two great men, alike in their devotion to the commonweal, 
were strangely antipathetic both in personality and in politics. 
Both, it is true, found themselves in an uncongenial environ- 
ment. Falkland was born too early, Strafford was born too 
late. Falkland was a moderate constitutionalist pitched 
into the seething sea of revolution ; Strafford was a Vulcan 
well fitted, by a policy of blood and iron, to weld into one 
great whole the disjointed members of an incipient Empire. 
Falkland was an evolutionary conservative ideally fitted for 
the work of a constitutional minister in placid times; Straf- 
ford was a revolutionary idealist impatient to attain the 
essential end of all government by means unsuited to his 
day. Both were intensely loyal to the monarchy ; but while 
Strafford was devoted to the person of the King, Falkland 
was merely a believer in the institution. Both were loyal 
to Parliament, but in different senses ; Strafford believed in 
it as an effective instrument in the grasp of a strong ruler ; 
Falkland regarded it as a means whereby discordant ele- 
ments in the State might be brought into harmony for the 
common weal, and whereby political progress might be made 
at once continuous and calm. 

Into the general merits of the case against Strafford it 
is unnecessary, as it is impossible, to enter here. But it 
is necessary, in a critical essay on Falkland, to probe the 
reasons for the mistrust with which one loyal servant of the 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 159 

Crown regarded another. Some help towards a solution 
may perhaps be obtained by reverting to the parallel of 
Buckingham. Strafford had flung himself heart and soul 
into the attack on Buckingham and into the opposition to 
the Crown. His monarchical instincts were offended by the 
pitiful spectacle presented by a personal regime inspired by 
an incompetent favourite. A firm believer in strong ad- 
ministration, he saw nothing but incompetence and weakness 
on every side. Buckingham was, as he believed, the enemy — 
the enemy to the country, the enemy to the King, the enemy 
to the cause of strong government. Buckingham, therefore, 
must be struck down. Similarly, Falkland was a believer 
in constitutional monarchy, in conservative reform, in a 
national and comprehensive Church. To the causes which 
Falkland loved, Strafford with his impatient and overbearing 
idealism, Strafford in his partnership with Laud, was the 
arch-enemy. Strafford and Laud — so it seemed to Falkland 
— were rendering all steady and conservative progress im- 
possible ; their methods could produce nothing but reaction. 
Were not Falkland's forebodings abundantly justified by 
events ? Was not his diagnosis absolutely sound ? He had 
no love for Strafford and he broke from Pym. To all 
time, therefore, he is the type of the inconstant waverer, 
the well-intentioned dreamer unfitted for affairs. But is 
not the estimate superficial and unjust ? His one fault was 
that his soul was too large and his vision too clear for the 
pettinesses and bigotries by which he was surrounded. 



Until the day of his death Strafford filled the stage. 
But the Journals of the House prove its manifold activities 
in other directions. Before Strafford was sent to the block 
much of the machinery of " Thorough " had been destroyed 
and many of its agents brought to account. Of all the 



160 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

questions dealt with by the Long Parliament, in its first 
session, none was so insistent as that of the Church ; but 
this will be reserved for separate and continuous treatment. 
Meanwhile, Parliament listened to the long tale of grievances 
detailed in county petitions ; it impeached Laud, Finch and 
Windebank ; it vindicated the " distressed ministers and 
other persecuted people" such as Prynne, Bastwick and 
Burton ; it questioned and committed " many doctors and 
divines that had been most busy in promoting the late 
Church innovations " ; it swept away the Prerogative Courts, 
the Star Chamber, the High Commission Court, the Stannary 
Courts, the Council of the North and the Court of the 
Marches ; it reversed famous judgments ; it declared the 
illegality of Impositions and Tonnage and Poundage with- 
out the consent of Parliament ; it restricted Purveyance ; 
it determined forest boundaries and abolished compulsory 
knighthood ; above all it provided, by the Triennial Act, 
against the intermission of Parliamentary Sessions for the 
future, and, by a flagrant, though not perhaps unjustifiable 
invasion of the Prerogative, made it impossible for the Crown 
to dissolve the existing Parliament without its own consent. 
None of these questions really evoked any serious difference 
of opinion. In both Houses there was practical unanimity 
as to the expediency of sweeping away the abuses of the old 
regime, and rendering their recurrence impossible. The 
Commons' Journals make it abundantly clear that Falkland 
took his full share in the work of the session. He served 
on innumerable Committees, took part in endless Confer- 
ences. Not infrequently he was appointed to serve as one 
of the " reporters " of the Conference. 

But there was one question prominently before the Long 
Parliament in its first session which appealed to Falkland 
with especial force, and to the solution of which he made 
an exceptionally important contribution. He was deeply 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 161 

impressed by the wrong done to the cause of good govern- 
ment and orderly administration by the action of the judges, 
and in particular, of Lord Keeper Finch, in regard to ship- 
money. " Those persons who should have been as dogs to 
defend the sheep, have been as wolves to worry them." 

On 5th December, 1640, there was presented to the House 
a " humble petition of divers inhabitants in and about the 
Town of Watford, complaining of the Sheriff for rigorous 
levying of ship-money". The petition was referred to a 
Committee, and two days later the House resumed the con- 
sideration of the subject. This was the occasion on which 
" Lord Falkland, that excellent man, and one of the won- 
ders of his age," l delivered his famous speech on ship- 
money. Its importance demands quotation in full : — 

" Mr. Speaker, 

" I rejoice very much to see this day ; and the 
want hath not lain in my Affections, but my Lungs, if to 
all that hath been past I have not been as loud with my 
Voice as any man in the House ; yet truly my Opinion is, 
we have yet done nothing, if we do no more ; I shall add 
what I humbly conceive ought to be added, as soon as I 
have said something with reference to him that says it. I 
will first desire the forgivness of the House if ought I say 
seem to intrench upon another's Profession, and enter upon 
the work of another Robe. Since I have been intrusted 
by the Report of a learned Committee, and confirmed by 
the uncontradicted Rule of the House, since I shall say 
nothing of this kind but in order to something further; 
And which moves me most to venture my Opinion, and 
to expect your pardon, since I am confident that History 
alone is sufficient to shew this Judgment contrary to our 
Laws, and Logick alone is sufficient to prove it destructive 

iNalson, Coll., i., 654. 



162 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

to our Propriety, which every free, and noble Person values 
more than his Profession. I will not profess I know my 
self, but all those who know me, know that my natural dis- 
position is to decline from Severity, much more than from 
Cruelty. That I have no particular provocation from their 
Persons, and have particular obligations to their Calling 
against whom I am to speak ; and though I have not so 
much knowledge in Law, yet far more than I have use for ; 
so I hope it will be believed, that only publick interest hath 
exorted this from me, and that which I would not say, if I 
conceived it not so true, and so necessary, that no undigested 
meat can be heavier upon the Stomach, that this unsaid 
would have lain upon my Conscience. 

" Mr. Speaker, the constitution of this Commonwealth 
hath established, or rather endeavoured to establish to us the 
security of our Goods, and the security of those Laws which 
would secure us and our Goods, by appointing for us Judges 
so settled, so sworn, that there can be no oppression, but 
they of necessity must be accessary ; since if they neither 
deny, nor delay us Justice, which neither for the Great nor 
Little Seal they ought to do ; the greatest Person in this 
Kingdom cannot continue the least violence upon the mean- 
est : But this Security, Mr. Speaker, hath been almost our 
ruin ; for it hath been turned, or rather turned it self into a 
Battery against us : And those Persons who should have 
been as Dogs to defend the Sheep, have been as Wolves to 
worry them. 

" These Judges, Mr. Speaker, to instance not them only, 
but their greatest crime, have delivered an Opinion and 
Judgment in an extrajudical manner, that is, such as came 
not within their cognizance, they being Judges, and neither 
Philosophers, nor Politicians ; In which, when that which 
they would have so absolute and evident, taketh place, the 
Law of the Land ceases, and that of general reason and 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 163 

equity, by which particular Laws at first were framed, re- 
turns to his Throne and Government, where sains Popidi 
becomes not only suprema, but sola Lex ; at which, and to 
which end, whatsoever should dispence with the King, to 
make use of any Money, dispenses with us, to make use of 
his, and one another's. In this judgment they contradicted 
both many, and learned Acts and Declarations of Parlia- 
ment ; and those in this very Case, in this very Reign ; so 
that for them they needed to have consulted with no other 
Record, but with their Memories. 

" 2. They have contradicted apparent Evidences, by 
supposing mighty and eminent Dangers, in the most serene, 
quiet and halcion days that could possibly be imagined, a 
few contemptable Pirates, being our most formidable En- 
emies, and there being neither Prince nor State, with whom 
we had not alliance, or Amity, or both. 

" 3. They contradict the Writ itself, by supposing that 
supposed Danger to be so sudden, that it would not stay for 
a Parliament, which required but a forty days' stay, and the 
Writ being in no such hast, but being content to stay forty 
days seven times over. 

" Mr. Speaker, it seemed generally strange, that they 
saw not the Law, which all men else saw, but themselves. 
Yet though this begot the more general wonder, three other 
Particulars begot the more general indignation. 

" The first of all the Reasons for this Judgment, was such, 
that there needed not any from the adverse Party to con- 
vert those few, who before had not the least suspicion of 
the legality of that most illegal Writ, there being fewer that 
approved of the Judgment, than there were that judged it 
legal, for I am confident they did not That themselves. 

" Secondly, when they had allowed to the King, the sole 
Power in necessity, the sole Judgment of necessity, and by 
that enabled him to take both from us, what he would, when 



164 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

he would, and how he would, they yet continue to perswade 
us that they had left us our Liberties and Properties. 

" The Third and Last is, and which I confess moved most, 
That by the transformation of us from the state of free Sub- 
jects (a good phrase Mr. Speaker, under Doctor Heylin's 
favour) unto that of Villains, they disable us by legal and 
voluntary supplies to express our affections to His Majesty, 
and by that to cherish his to us, that is by Parliaments. 

" Mr. Speaker the cause of all the Miseries we have 
suffered, and the cause of all our Jealousies we have had 
that we should yet suffer, is, That a most excellent Prince 
hath been most infinitely abused by his Judges, telling him 
that by Policy he might do what he pleased ; with the first 
of these we are now to deal, which may be a leading to the 
rest. And since in providing of these Laws, upon which 
these men have trampled, our ancestors have shewed their 
utmost care and wisdom, for our undoubted security, words 
having done nothing, and yet they have all that words can 
do, we must now be forced to think of abolishing of our 
Grievances, and of taking away this Judgment, and these 
Judges together, and of regulating their Successors by their 
exemplary punishment. 

" 1 will not speak much ; I will only say we have accused 
a great Person of High Treason, for intending to subvert our 
Fundamental Laws, and to introduce Arbitrary Government, 
which we suppose he meant to do ; we are sure these have 
done it, there being no Law more fundamental, than that 
they have already subverted ; and no Government more 
absolute, than they have really introduced : Mr. Speaker, 
not only the severe punishment, but the sudden removal of 
these men, will have a sudden effect in one very consider- 
able Consideration. We only accuse, and the House of 
Lords condemn ; in which condemnation they usually re- 
ceive advice (tho not direction) from the Judges ; and I 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 165 

leave it to every man to imagine how prejudical to us, that 
is, to the Commonwealth, and how partial to their Fellow- 
malefactors, the advice of such Judges is like to be. How 
undoubtedly for their own sakes, they will think it may 
conduce to their power, that every Action be judged to be 
a less fault, and every Person to be less faulty, than in justice 
they ought to do ; Amongst these Mr. Speaker, there is one 
that I must not lose in the Crowd, whom I doubt not but we 
shall find, when we examine the rest of them, with what 
hopes they have been tempted, by what fears they have 
been effay'd, and by what they did ; I doubt not, I say, but 
we shall then find him to have been a most admirable Solicitor, 
but a most abominable Judge ; he it is who not only gave 
away with his breath, what our Ancestors had purchased for 
us by so large an expense of their Time, their Care, their 
Treasure, and their Blood, and imployed his Industry, as 
great as his Unjustice, to perswade others to join with him 
in that deed of gift : but strove to root up those Liberties 
which they had cut down ; and to make our grievances 
immortal, and our Slavery irreparable, lest any part of our 
Posterity might want to curse him ; He declared that power 
to be so inherent to the Crown, as that it was not in the 
power even of Parliaments to divide them. I have heard 
Mr. Speaker, and I think here that common Fame is ground 
enough for this House to accuse upon ; and then undoubtedly 
there is enough to be accused upon in this House : he hath 
reported this so generally, that I expect not that you shall 
bid me name him whom you all know, nor do I look to tell 
your any news, when I tell you it is my Lord Keeper. But 
this I think fit to put you in mind of, That his place admits 
him to His Majesty, and trusts him with His Majesty's 
Conscience, and how pernicious every moment must be, 
which gives him means to infuse such unjust Opinions of 
this House, as are exprest in a Libel, rather than a Declara- 



166 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

tion, of which many believe him to be the Principal Secret- 
ary ; and th' other puts the most vast and unlimited power 
of the Chancery into his hands, the safest of which will be 
dangerous ; for my part, I think no man secure, that he 
shall think himself worth anything when he rises, whilst all 
our Estates are in his breast, who hath sacrifised his Country 
to his Ambition ; whilst he who hath prostrated his own 
Conscience, hath the keeping of the King's ; and he who 
hath undone us already by wholesale, hath a power left in 
him by retail. 

"Mr. Speaker, In the beginning of the Parliament he 
told us, and I am confident every man here believes it 
before he told it, and never the more for his telling, tho 
a sorry Witness is a good testimony against himself; That 
His Majesty never required anything from any of his 
Ministers but Justice and Integrity. Against which, if any 
of them have transgrest, upon their heads, and that de- 
servedly, it all ought to fall ; it was full and truly said ; but 
he hath in this saying pronounced his own condemnation ; 
we shall be more partial to him, than he is to himself, if we 
be slow to pursue it. It is therefore my just and humble 
motion, that we may chuse a select Committee to draw up 
his and their Charge, and to examine their carriage in this 
particular, to make use of it in the Charge ; and if he shall 
be found guilty of tampering with Judges against the 
Publick Security, who thought tampering with Witnesses 
in a private Cause, worthy of so great a Fine ; if he should 
be found to have gone before rest to this Judgment, and 
to have gone beyond the rest in this Judgment, that in 
the punishment of it the Justice of this House may not 
deny him the due honour both to precede and exceed the 
rest." 1 

The speech had immediate and important results, and 

1 Rushworth, iv., 86 seq. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 167 

the House passed without a dissentient voice the follow- 
ing resolution : — 

(1) "That the charge imposed upon the Subjects for the 
providing and furnishing of ships, and the assessments for 
raising of money for that purpose, commonly called ship- 
money are against the laws of the realm, the subjects right 
of property and contrary to former resolutions in Parliament 
and to the Petition of Right. 

(2) "That the extra-judicial opinions of the Judges 
published in the Star Chamber and enrolled in the Courts 
of Westminster in h&c verba, etc., in the whole and in every 
part of them are against the Laws of the Realm, the Right 
of Property, and the Liberty of the Subjects, and contrary to 
former resolutions in Parliament, and to the Petition of Right. 

(3) " That the writ following in hcec verba, etc., and the 
other writs commonly called the ship writs are against the 
laws of the Realm (etc., tit supra), and 

(4) " That judgment in the Exchequer in Hampden's 
case in the matter and substance thereof, and in that it was 
conceived that Mr. Hampden was any way chargeable is 
against the Laws of the Realm (etc., ut supra)" 1 

Further : on the motion of Hyde, a Committee of sixteen 
members was appointed "to go forthwith to the several 
judges to know how they were solicited or threatened, and 
in what manner, and by whom, to give any opinion or 
judgment concerning ship-money, and they are to go two 
to a Judge". Leave was likewise given to this Committee 
" to acquaint the Judges what hath been voted this day in the 
House touching ship-money, and to use their own discretions 
to ask such questions as shall be material to the matter 
contained in the order". Falkland, Hyde, Sir John Cul- 
pepper and Sir Arthur Hazelrig were among the members 
appointed to serve. As a result of their investigations the 

1 Rushworth, iv., 88, and Nalson. 



i68 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

House resolved, on the motion of Falkland, to proceed to 
the impeachment of Lord Keeper Finch. Finch prayed 
that before matters went further he might be heard at the 
bar in his own defence. To this request the House, though 
not without "great controversy," acceded, and on 21st De- 
cember the " great officer of the Law " appeared at the bar. 
A chair was set for him, and " when the Speaker told him 
that his lordship might sit, he made a low obeisance, and 
laying down the Seal and his hat on the chair made a 
speech standing and bare-headed ". 

The speech, " elegant and ingenious," J and delivered 
with " an excellent grace and gesture," was an effective plea 
for clemency, and it made an obvious impression upon a 
curiously sympathetic House. " Many," says Rushworth, 
" were exceedingly taken with his eloquence and carriage ; 
and it was a sad sight to see a person of his greatness, parts, 
and favour to appear in such a posture before such an 
assembly to plead for his life and fortunes." But his 
eloquence did not suffice to save him ; the House resolved 
on his impeachment, and Falkland was appointed to carry 
up the accusation to the Lords. Finch, however, had no 
mind for martyrdom. " The next day he was accused 
before the Lords, but he got up earlier and escaped into 
Holland." 2 The impeachment, of course, went on. Hyde 
was " at the request of the Lord Falkland " appointed " to 
be assistant unto him for the reading of the articles against 
the late Lord Keeper". Together they appeared at the bar 
of the House of Lords, and Falkland having read the articles 
of impeachment delivered the following speech : — 

" Mr. Speaker, 

" These Articles against my Lord Finch being 
read, I may be bold to apply that of the Poet, Nil refert 

1 Whitelocke. 2 Rushworth. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 169 

tales versus qua voce legantur ; and I doubt not but your 
Lordships must be of the same Opinion, of which the 
House of Commons appears to have been by the choice 
they have made of me, that the Charge I have brought is 
such, as needs no assistance from the bringer, leaving not 
so much as a colour for any defence, including all possible 
Evidence, and all possible aggravation, that addition alone 
excepted, which he alone could make, and hath made, I 
mean his Confession, included in his flight. 

" Here are many and mighty Crimes, Crimes of Super- 
erogation, (so that High-Treason is but a part of his Charge) 
pursuing him fervently in every several Condition, (being a 
silent Speaker, an unjust Judge, and an unconscionable 
Keeper). That his life appears a perpetual Warfare, (by 
Mines, and by Battery, by Battel, and by Stratagem) against 
our Fundamental Laws, which by his own Confession, several 
Conquests had left untoucht ; against the Excellent Con- 
stitution of this Kingdom, which hath made it appear unto 
strangers rather an Idea, than a real Commonwealth, and 
produced happiness of this, to be a wonder of every other 
Nation, and this with such unfortunate success, that as he 
always intended to make our Ruins a ground of his advance- 
ment ; so his advancement the means of our further ruin. 
After that, contrary to the duty of his Place, and the end of 
that meeting in which he held his place, he had as it were 
gagg'd the Commonwealth, taking away, (to his power) all 
Power of Speech from that body, of which he ought to have 
been the Mouth, and which alone can perfectly represent the 
condition of the people, whom that body only represents ; 
which if he had not done, in all probability, what so grave 
and judicious an Assembly might have offered to the con- 
sideration of so gracious and just a Prince, had occasioned 
the redress of the Grievances they then suffered, and pre- 
vented those which they have since endured, according to 



170 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

the ancient Maxim of Odisse guos Iczseris ; he pursued this 
offence towards the Parliament, by inveighing against the 
Members, by scandalising their proceedings, by trampling 
upon their Acts and Declarations, by usurping and devolv- 
ing the right, by diminishing and abrogating the power, both 
of that and other Parliaments, and making them (as much as 
in him lay) both useless and odious to His Majesty ; and 
pursued his hatred to this Fountain of Justice, by corrupting 
the Streams of it, the Laws ; and perverting the Conduit 
Pipes, the Judges. 

" He practised the annihilating of Ancient and Notorious 
perambulations of particular Forests, the better to prepare 
himself to annihilate the Ancient and Notorious perambula- 
tions of the whole Kingdom, the meeres and boundaries be- 
tween the Liberties of the Subject, and Sovereign Power ; he 
endeavoured to have all tenures durante bene placito ; to bring 
all Laws from His Majesties Courts into His Majesties breast, 
he gave our Goods to the King, our Lands to the Deer, our 
Liberties to his Sheriffs ; so that there was no way by which 
we had not been opprest, and destroyed, if the power of this 
Person had been equal to his Will : Or that the will of His 
Majesty had been equal to his Power. 

" He not only by this means made us liable to all the 
effects of an Invasion from without, but (by destruction of 
our Liberties, which included the destruction of our pro- 
priety, which included the destruction of our Industry) to the 
terriblest of the Invasions, that of Want and Poverty. So 
that if what he plotted had taken root (and he made it as 
sure as his Declaration could make it what himself was not 
Parliament-proof) in this wealthy and happy Kingdom, 
there could have been left no abundance but of grievances 
and discontentment ; no satisfaction but amongst the guilty. 
It is generally observed of the Plague, that the Infection of 
others, is an earnest and constant desire of all that are seized 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 171 

by it : and as this design resembles that disease in the ruin, 
destruction, and desolation it would have wrought ; so it 
seems no less like it in the effect : he having so laboured to 
make others share in that Guilt, that his sollicitation was not 
only his Action, but theirs, making use of his Authority, 
his Interest, and Importunity to perswade : and in His 
Majesties Name (whose Piety is known to give that ex- 
cellent prerogative to his Person, that the Law gives to his 
Place, not to have been able to do wrong) to threaten the 
rest of the Judges, to sign Opinions contrary to Law, to 
assign Answers contrary to their Opinions, to give Judge- 
ment, which they ought not to have given, and to recant 
Judgement, when they had given it as they ought ; so that 
whosoever considers his care of, and concernment, both in 
the growth and in the continuance of this project, cannot but 
by the same way by which the wisest Judgement found the 
true Mother of the Child, discover him, not only to have 
been the Fosterer, but the Father of this most pernicious 
and envious design. 

" I shall not need to observe, that this was plotted and 
pursued by an English man and against England (which 
increaseth the Crime in no less degree than parricide is 
beyond Murther) and this was done in the greatest matter 
joyned to the greatest Bond, being against the general 
Liberty, and publick propriety, by a sworn Judge (and if 
salt itself became unsavoury, the Gospel itself hath designed 
whether it must be cast) that he poysoned our very Anti- 
dotes, and turned our Guard into a destruction, making Law 
the ground of illegality : that he used the Law not only 
against us, but against itself; making it, as I may say ; 
Felo de se, making the pretence, (for I can scarce say, the 
appearance of it) so to contribute to the utter ruin of itself. 

" I shall not need to say, that either this is (or can be) of 
the highest kind, and in the highest degree Parliamentary 



172 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Treason, a Treason which needs not a computation of many- 
several actions, which alone were not Treason, to prove a 
Treason altogether, and by that demonstration of the in- 
tention, to make that formally Treason which were materi- 
ally but a misdemeanour. This is a Treason as well against 
the King, as against the Kingdom ; for whatsoever is against 
the whole, is undoubtedly against the Head, which takes 
from His Majesty the ground of his Rule, the Laws, (for if 
Foundations be destroyed, the Pinacles are most endangered) 
which takes from His Majesty the principal Honour of his 
Rule, the Ruling over Free-men, a power as much Nobler 
than that over Villains, as that is than that over beasts ; 
which endeavoured to take from His Majesty the principal 
support of his Rule, the hearts and affections of those over 
whom he rules (a better and surer wall to the King, than the 
Sea is to the Kingdom) by begetting a mutual distrust 
and by that a mutual disaffection between them, to hazard 
the danger even of the destruction of both. 

" My Lords, I shall the less need to press this, because, 
as it were unreasonable in any case to suspect your justice, 
so here especially, where your interest so nearly unites you ; 
your great share in possessions, giving you an equal con- 
cernment in propriety ; the care and pains used by your 
Noble Ancestors in the founding, and asserting of our 
Common Liberties, rendring the just defence of them, 
your most proper and peculiar inheritance, and both ex- 
citing to oppose and extirpate all such designs as did 
introduce and would have settled an Arbitrary, that is, an 
intolerable form of Government, and have made even your 
Lordships and your posterity but Right Honourable 
Slaves. 

" My Lords, I will spend no more words, Luctando cum 
larva, in accusing the Ghost of a departed Person, whom 
his Crimes accuse more than I can do ; and his absence 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 173 

accuseth no less than his Crimes. Neither will I excuse the 
length of what I have said, because I cannot add to an 
excuse, without adding to the Fault ; or my own imperfec- 
tions, either in the matter or manner of it, which I know 
must appear the greater, by being compared with that 
learned Gentleman's great Ability, who hath preceded me 
at this time : I will only desire by the Command, and in the 
behalf of the House of Commons, that these proceedings 
against the Lord Finch, may be put in so speedy a way of 
dispatch, as in such cases the course of Parliament will 
Allow." l 

In the event, the Lords sent back a message to the 
Commons that they had taken into consideration the charges 
against the late Keeper of the Great Seal ; but having 
received intimation that he was not to be found, they had 
ordered him into safe custody as soon as he could be dis- 
covered. Finch remained in exile for eight years, after 
which, having made abject submission, he was permitted to 
return quietly to England. 

Meanwhile, on the day after the formal impeachment of 
Finch before the Lords, the King announced his pleasure 
that the judges should henceforth hold office quamdiu se 
bene gesserint, and no longer durante bene placito. Falk- 
land's labours, though the immediate object of his attack 
had fled into a miserable exile, had not been in vain. The 
House of Commons recognised its debt to him, and on 
14th January it was ordered by the House that "thanks be 
rendered from the House to Mr. St. John and Mr. Whitlock, 
the Lord Falkland and Mr. Hide for the great service they 
have performed to the Honour of this House, and good of 
the Commonwealth, in the transferring the business of the 
ship-money and the other matters concerning the Liberty 

1 Rushworth, iv., 139 seq. 



174 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

and Property of the Subjects and the articles against the 
late Lord Keeper ". 

Falkland's two great speeches — the exceptional vehem- 
ence of his language, and the persistence with which it was 
followed up by action — prove the depth of his feeling in 
regard to ship-money. It is necessary, therefore, to scruti- 
nise with some care the motives by which he was inspired. 
Falkland's main objection was clearly not to the imposition 
itself, but to the misuse of the judicial bench in connection 
with it. He felt that, in this sense, the question went to the 
very roots of political society and affected principles which 
were at once elementary and fundamental. To Falkland 
as to Bacon the position of the judges in the State, and 
their appropriate functions in the general scheme of polity, 
were matters of first-rate importance. Bacon frankly de- 
sired that the judiciary should be regarded as the hand- 
maid of the executive. " Let Judges also remember that 
Solomon's throne was supported by lions on both sides ; let 
them be lions, but yet lions under the throne, being circum- 
spect that they do not check or oppose any points of 
sovereignty." x To Falkland such a doctrine was abhorrent. 
The primary function of the judges was to protect the 
liberty of the individual, not to enlarge the prerogative of 
the Crown. " If they neither deny nor delay us justice . . . 
the greatest person in this kingdom cannot continue the 
least violence upon the meanest." It was the misuse of their 
function that he so vehemently condemned ; that they had 
"delivered an opinion and judgment in an extra-judicial 
manner, that is such as came not within their cognisance, 
they being Judges, and neither philosophers nor politicians ". 
This was the real point of his attack, and he undoubtedly 
weakened his case by straying off on to the point of law. 
He had of course no difficulty in brushing aside the flimsy 
1 Essay " Of Judicature ". 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 175 

pretext of " imminent danger" and urgent necessity ; but 
to say that the "Judges saw not the law, which all men 
else saw but themselves," savours of a layman's impertinence. 
Nor was it the essential point. The judgment may in itself 
have been perfectly sound in law, and yet at the same time 
the grounds on which it was based may have been po- 
litically mischievous beyond all computation. Clarendon's 
criticism is eminently to the point. He makes no attempt 
to vindicate Falkland's opinion on the question of law ; he 
hints indeed that he was badly advised " by those who, he 
believed, understood the laws perfectly ". But on the politi- 
cal aspect he is no less emphatic than his friend. " The 
damage and mischief cannot be expressed that the Crown 
and State sustained by the deserved reproach and infamy 
that attended the judges by being made use of in this and 
the like acts of power." People might well condone some 
stretching of the Prerogative " upon an emergent occasion " ; 
what they would not stand was " apothegms of State urged 
as elements of law, judges as sharp-sighted as Secretaries 
of State and in the mysteries of State ; judgment of law 
grounded upon matter of fact of which there was neither 
inquiry nor proof." 1 

Here Clarendon was absolutely at one with Falkland, 
and here both were on firm ground. It was essentially the 
old question at issue between Bacon and Coke reappearing 
in a new form. Was there to be in England " one law for 
all," or was the executive to be strengthened by the admission 
of the principle of the droit administratif ? Regarded from 
this point of view, the "ship-money question" assumes a 
fresh importance ; it is seen to be, not merely a temporary 
expedient to raise money by extra-parliamentary means, 
but an essential part of a coherent and cunningly compacted 
scheme. " Thorough " was impracticable without tribunaux 

1 l, 116. 



176 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

administratifs ; English judges must be taught to dance 
to the pipe of the executive. 1 It would be fantastic to 
suppose that these considerations in their full significance 
were present to the minds of the squires and lawyers of 
the Long Parliament ; but it is indubitable that in their 
denunciation of ship-money and in their attack upon Lord 
Keeper Finch they were dimly feeling after a constitutional 
principle of the first importance. 

In this quest they followed the lead of Lord Falkland. 

1 On the subject of the droit administratis cf. Prof. A. V. Dicey's 
luminous work on The l^aw of the Constitution. 




LUCIUS, SKCOND VISCOUNT FALKLAND 

FROM .\\ ENGRAVING BY BOCQUET FROM THE 1'ICTURE THEN IN THE POSSESSION OF THE 
DUKE OF QUEENSBERRV 



CHAPTER III 

THE LONG PARLIAMENT: FALKLAND AND THE CHURCH 

OF all the important questions which came before the 
Long Parliament, there was none to Falkland so im- 
portant or so interesting as that of the Church. The general 
nature of the ecclesiastical problem has been already indi- 
cated. 1 In the early months of the Long Parliament we 
necessarily come to closer quarters with the issues involved. 
Those issues were by no means academic. For more than 
a quarter of a century the Arminians had had it all their 
own way in regard to high ecclesiastical preferment. For 
the last ten years their domination had extended to politics. 
They not merely held " all the best bishoprics and deaneries 
in England," they dictated the policy of the Crown. As to 
the growing unpopularity of this ecclesiastical regime there 
can be no question ; but it is exceedingly difficult, in view 
of much conflicting evidence, to gauge public feeling as to 
any particular method of reform. Were the people sick of 
Episcopacy and panting for Presbyterianism ? Baillie evi- 
dently thought so, and wrote to his friends on 18th November, 
1640, in the highest spirits. " Episcopacie itself beginning 
to be cryed down, and a covenant cried up, and the Liturgie 
scorned. The toun of London, and a world of men, minds 
to present a petition for the abolition of Bishops, Deanes 
and all their aperteanances. It is thought good to delay it 

Bk. i., ch. iii. 
12 177 



178 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

till the Parliament have pulled down Canterburie and some 
prime Bishops, which they minde to doe so soon as the 
King has a little digested the bitterness of his Lieutenant's 
censure. Hudge things are here in working : The mighty- 
hand of God be about this great work ! We hope this shall 
be the joyfull harvest of the teares that this manie yeares 
has been sawin in this kingdomes. All here are wearie of 
Bishops." It is certain that Baillie was hopelessly deceived : 
he judged of England — not unnaturally — from London. 
And Baillie himself becomes less confident as the months 
pass on. In December he still believed that the popular 
voice favoured the " root and branch " policy. " All are 
for bringing them (the Bishops) verie low ; but who will 
not root them clean away are not respected." Later on 
comes the fear lest the action of the Brownists may save 
Episcopacy. "The Separatists are like to be some help 
to hold up the Bishops through their impertinencie." 
Towards the end of December the dread increases. " There 
was some fear for those of the new way who are for the 
Independent congregations." By the middle of March the 
tone of his reports is becoming distinctly more cautious. 
" To propone the rooting out of the Bishops had been by 
pluralitie of voices to have established them." Clearly 
Presbyterianism was not to be rushed through, and it is 
painful to observe in this typical Presbyterian an increasing 
reliance upon the secular arm. No permanent harm was 
likely to come to the cause of God, either from Brownists 
or Prelatists, "so long as the lads about Newcastle sitts 
still ". 

Clarendon and Baillie are of course at opposite poles, 
but Clarendon, while not denying the unpopularity of 
the Bishops in London — " the sink of all the ill humour 
of the kingdom " — bitterly condemns the apathy and 
weakness of the executive at this crisis. " It had been no 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 179 

hard matter to have destroyed those seeds and pulled 
up those plants which (being) neglected grew up and 
prospered to a full harvest of rebellion and treason." But 
Clarendon probably underrates the depth of the feeling ex- 
cited by Laud as much as Baillie exaggerates it. 

Difficult, however, as it is to arrive at any sound and 
general conclusion as to the feeling of the country, there is 
no obscurity as to the temper of Parliament. Within three 
days of its first meeting the House of Commons appointed 
" a Committee of the whole House for Religion to meet 
every Monday at two of the clock ". " Let Religion," said 
Rudyard speaking on 7th November, "be our primum 
qucerite ; for all things else are but et caeteras to it : . . . 
Believe it, sir, religion hath been for a long time and still is 
the great design upon this kingdom." Speaking on the 
same occasion Pym laid stress upon the " Encouragement of 
Popery," the introduction of innovations in religion, and 
" last and greatest grievance," " the ambitious and corrupt 
clergy preaching down the laws of God and Liberties of 
the kingdom ". Meanwhile, petitions were pouring in upon 
the House from every side. Nearly all make the same 
complaints and the same demands : they denounce the re- 
moval of the communion table to the east end, and the 
railing it in ; they complain of the oath and articles imposed 
upon Churchwardens ; the false doctrines and irregularities 
of the clergy. From the country came no hint of a demand 
for revolution in Church government. It was otherwise in 
Presbyterian London. There the tide was running strong 
against Episcopacy. On nth December the monster peti- 
tion signed by 15,000 laymen and 1,640 ministers in London 
was, amid considerable tumult, presented to the House. 
This was the famous " Root and Branch Petition," praying 
that "the government of archbishops and lord bishops, deans 
and archdeacons, etc., . . . with all its dependencies, roots 



180 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

and branches, may be abolished, and all laws in their behalf 
made void, and the government according to God's Word 
may be rightly placed among us "} The presentation of this 
petition marked the beginning, faint as at first it was, of the 
definition of parties in Parliament. " It was well received," 
says Baillie ; " there were many against, and many for the 
same," wrote his colleagues. 2 Clarendon denounces the 
" strange uningenuity and mountebankry that was practised 
in the procuring these petitions," but it seems idle to deny that 
they represented a considerable body of opinion. There were 
extremists on this side as on the other, but the significant 
point is that already the moderate party was coming into 
view. " Doubtless," said the Puritan D'Ewes, 3 " the Govern- 
ment of the Church of God by godly, zealous and preaching 
bishops hath been most ancient, and I should reverence 
such a bishop in the next degree to a King. But I protest 
in the presence of God that if matters in religion had gone 
on twenty years longer as they have done of late years, 
there would not in the issue so much as the face of religion 
have continued amongst us but all should have been over- 
whelmed with idolatry, superstition, ignorance, profaneness 
and heresy. As I allowed ancient and godly bishops so I 
disliked their baronies and temporal honours and employ- 
ments." 

It is obvious that the party which Falkland was to lead, 
and in a special sense to represent, was already in process of 
formation. 

Further evidence of the growth of this moderate party 
is afforded by the presentation on 23rd January, 1641, of the 

1 Text in Rushworth, iv., 93 and, accessible to all, in Constitutional Docu- 
ments, ed. Gardiner. 

4 Gardiner, ix., 247. 

3 Quoted by Shaw, History of the English Church during the Civil War 
and under the Commonwealth, i., 17. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 181 

"Ministers' Petition and Remonstrance". 1 This demanded 
not revolution, but reform, and on it was founded the sub- 
sequent proposal for the removal of the bishops from 
secular employment in general and the House of Lords in 
particular. Meanwhile the extreme Puritans in the House 
had not been idle. " Little Canterbury " was caged ; so was 
Wren, Bishop of Norwich, and many leading Arminians; 
their victims were "vindicated," and resolutions were passed 
denying the power of the clergy to "make canons without 
common consent in Parliament ". 

On 8th February, 1641, the two great petitions — the 
" Root and Branch Petition " and the " Ministers' Remon- 
strance" — were taken into consideration by the House, and 
one of the most important debates of the session ensued. 
It was on this occasion that Falkland delivered the speech 
which may perhaps be regarded as his most powerful and 
elaborate effort. Its keynote is a statesmanlike avoidance 
of extremes. He did not spare the Arminian bishops — 
those who have been " the destruction of unity under pre- 
tence of uniformity," nor did he deny their responsibility for 
the outbreak of rebellion ; but he candidly distinguished 
between the men and their order, and his essential con- 
servatism comes out indisputably. Can it be the part 
of statesmanship "to abolish upon a few days' debate an 
order which hath lasted in most Churches these sixteen 
hundred years, and in all from Christ to Calvin ". But so 
remarkable a speech must be quoted in full. 

" He is a great Stranger in Israel, who knows not this 
kingdom hath long laboured under many and great oppres- 
sions, both in Religion and Liberty ; and his acquaintance 
here is not great, or his ingenuity less, who doth not both 
know and acknowledge that a great, if not a principal cause 
of both these have been some Bishops and their adherents. 
1 See Shaw, i., 24, for summary of its " near four score heads ". 



182 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

" Mr. Speaker, A little search will serve to find them to 
have been the destruction of Unity, under Pretence of Uni- 
formity; to have brought in Superstition and Scandal, 
under the Titles of Reverence and Decency ; to have defiled 
our Church by adorning our Churches ; to have slackened 
the strictness of that Union which was formerly between us, 
and those of our Religion, beyond the Sea ; an Action as un- 
politick as ungodly. 

" Mr. Speaker, We shall find them to have tythed Mint 
and Anise, and have left undone the weightier Works of the 
Law ; to have been less eager upon those who damn our 
Church, than upon those, who upon weak Conscience, and 
perhaps as weak Reasons (the dislike of some commanded 
Garment, or some uncommanded Posture) only abstained 
from it. Nay, it hath been more dangerous for men to go 
to some Neighbour's Parish, when they had no sermon in 
their own, than to be obstinate and perpetual Recusants ; 
while Masses have been said in security, a Conventicle hath 
been a Crime ; and which is yet more, the conforming to 
Ceremonies hath been more exacted, than the conforming to 
Christianity; and whilst men for Scruples have been un- 
done; for attempts upon Sodomy they have only been 
admonished. 

" Mr. Speaker, We shall find them to have been like the 
Hen in yEsop, which laying every day an Egg upon such a 
proportion of Barley, her mistress increasing her proportion 
in hopes she would increase her Eggs, she grew so fat upon 
that addition, that she never laid more : so tho' at first their 
Preaching were the occasion of their Preferment, they after 
made their Preferment the occasion of their not preaching. 

" Mr. Speaker. We shall find them to have resembled 
another Fable, the Dog in the Manger ; to have neither 
preached themselves, nor imployed those that should, nor 
suffered those that would ; to have brought in Catechising 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 183 

only to thrust out preaching ; cried down Lectures by the 
name of Factions, either because other men's industry in 
that Duty appeared a reproof of their neglect of it, (not 
unlike to that we read of him, who, in Nero's time, and 
Tacitus' History, was accused, because by his vertue he did 
appear Exprobare vitia Principis) or with intention to have 
brought in darkness, that they may the easier sow their 
Tares while it was night ; And by that introduction of 
Ignorance, introduce the better that Religion which ac- 
counts it the Mother of Devotion. 

" Mr. Speaker, In this they have abused his Majesty, as 
well as the People ; for when they had with great wisdom 
(since usually the Children of Darkness are wiser in their 
Generation than the Children of Light ; I may guess not 
without some eye upon the most Politick action of the most 
Politick Church) silenced on both parts those Opinions 
which have often tormented the Church, and have, and will 
always trouble the Schools ; they made use of this Declara- 
tion to tye up one side, and let the other loose ; where- 
as they ought either in discretion to have been equally 
restrained, or in justice to have been equally tolerated. 
And it is observable, that that Party to which they gave 
this license was that whole Doctrine, tho' it were not con- 
trary to Law, was contrary to Custome, and for a long 
while in this Kingdom was no oftner preached than re- 
canted. 

" The truth is, Mr. Speaker, That as some ill Ministers 
in our State first took away our Money from us, and after 
endeavoured to make our Money not worth the taking, by 
turning it into Brass by a kind of Anti-philosopher's Stone : 
so these men used us in the point of Preaching ; first de- 
pressing it to their power, and next labouring to make it 
such, as the harm had not been much if it had been de- 
pressed : The most frequent Subjects even in the most 



184 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Sacred Auditories, being the Jus divinum of Bishops, and 
Tythes, the sacredness of the Clergy, the sacriledge of Im- 
propriations, the demolishing of Puritanism and Propriety, 
the building of the Prerogative at Paul's, the introduction of 
such Doctrines, as, admitting them true, the Truth would 
not recompence the Scandal ; or such as were so far false, 
that, as Sir Thomas Moore says of the Casuists, their busi- 
ness was not to keep men from sinning, but to confirm 
them ; Quam prope ad peccatum sine peccato liceat accedere : 
so it seemed their work was to try how much of a Papist 
might be brought in without Popery ; and to destroy as 
much as they could of the Gospel, without bringing them- 
selves into danger of being destroyed by the Law. 

" Mr. Speaker, To go yet further, Some of them have so 
industriously laboured to deduce themselves from Rome, 
that they have given great suspicion that in gratitude they 
desire to return thither, or at least to meet it half way: 
Some have evidently laboured to bring in an English, tho' 
not a Roman Popery : I mean not only the outside and 
dress of it, but equally absolute, a blind dependence of the 
People upon the Clergy, and of the Clergy upon themselves ; 
and have opposed the Papacy beyond the Seas, that they 
might settle one beyond the water; Nay, common Fame is 
more than ordinarily false, if none of them have found a way 
to reconcile the Opinions of Rome to the Preferments of 
England ; and to be so absolutely, directly and cordially 
Papists, that it is all that Fifteen hundred pounds a year 
can do to keep them from confessing it. 

" Mr. Speaker,- 1 come now to speak of our Liberties ; and 
considering the great interest these men have had in our 
common Master, and considering how great a good to us 
they might have made that interest in him, if they would 
have used it to have informed him of our general Sufferings ; 
and considering how a little of their freedom of speech at 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 185 

White-Hall, might have saved us a great deal of the use 
we now have of it in the Parliament House ; their not doing 
this alone, were occasion enough for us to accuse them as 
the Betrayers, tho' not as the Destroyers of our Rights and 
Liberties ; tho' I confess, if they had been only silent in this 
particular, I had been silent too. But alas ! They whose 
Ancestors in the darkest times excommunicated the breakers 
of Magna Charta, did now, by themselves, and their ad- 
herents, both write, preach, plot and act against it ; by 
encouraging Dr. Beale, by preferring Dr. Manwaring, ap- 
pearing forward for Monopolies and Ship-money : And if 
any were slow and backward to comply, blasting both them 
and their Preferment, with the utmost expression of their 
hatred, the title of Puritans. 

" Mr. Speaker, We shall find some of them to have 
laboured to exclude, both all Persons, and all Causes of the 
Clergy, from the ordinary Jurisdiction of the Temporal 
Magistrate; and by hindering Prohibitions, (first by ap- 
parent Power against the Judges, and after by secret Argu- 
ments with them) to have taken away the only legal bound 
to their Arbitrary Power, and made as it were a conquest 
upon the Common-Law of the Land, which is our common 
Inheritance ; and after made use of that Power to turn their 
Brethren out of their Freeholds, for not doing that which 
no Law of man required of them to do ; and which (in their 
Opinions) the Law of God required of them not to do. We 
shall find them in general to have encouraged all the Clergy 
to Suits, and to have brought all Suits to the Council-Table ; 
that having all Power in Ecclesiastical Matters, they laboured 
for equal Power in Temporal ; and to dispose as well of 
every Office, as of every Benefice, which lost the Clergy 
much time, and much Reverence, (whereof the last is never 
given when it is so asked) by encouraging them indiscreetly 
to exact more of both than was due; so that indeed the 



1 86 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

gain of their greatness extended but to a few of that Order, 
tho' the envy extended upon all. 

"We shall find them to have both kindled and blown 
the common Fire of both Nations, to have both sent and 
maintained that Book, of which the Author no doubt hath 
long since wished with Nero, utinam nescissem literas ; 
and of which more than one Kingdom hath cause to wish, 
that when he writ that he had rather burned a Library, 
though of the value of Ptolemy's. We shall find them to 
have been the first and principal cause of the breach, I will 
not say of, but since the pacification at, Berwick ; we shall 
find them to have been the almost sole Abettors of my Lord 
Strafford, whilst he was practising upon another Kingdom 
that manner of Government which he intended to settle in 
this, where he committed so many mighty, and so manifest 
Enormities and Oppressions, as the like have not been co- 
mitted by any Governour in any Government since Verres 
left Sicily; And after they had called him over from being 
Deputy of Ireland, to be in a manner Deputy of England, 
(all things here being governed by a Junctillo, and that 
Junctillo governed by him) to have assisted him in the 
giving such Councels, and the pursuing of such Courses, 
as it is a hard and measuring cast, whether they were more 
unwise, more unjust, or more unfortunate, and which had 
infallibly been our destruction, if by the Grace of God their 
share had not been so small in the Subtilty of Serpents, as 
in the Innocency of Doves. 

" Mr. Speaker, I have represented no small quantity 
and no mean degree of Guile, and truly I believe that we 
shall make no little Complement to those, and no little 
Apology for those to whom this Charge belongs, if we shall 
lay the faults of these men upon the order of the Bishops, 
upon the Episcopacy. I wish we may distinguish between 
those who have been carried away with the stream, and 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 187 

those who have been the stream that carried them ; between 
those whose proper and natural motion was towards our 
Ruine and Destruction ; and those who have been whirl'd 
about to it, contrary to their natural motion, by the force 
and swinge of superior Orbs ; and as I wish we may dis- 
tinguish between the more and less Guilty, so I yet more 
wish we may distinguish between the Guilty and the Inno- 
cent. 

" Mr. Speaker, I doubt, if we consider, that if not the 
first Planters, yet the first Spreaders of Christianity, and 
the first and chief Defenders of Christianity against Heresie 
within, and Paganism without, not only with their Ink but 
with their Blood, and the main Conducers to the resurrection 
of Christianity at least here in the Reformation ; and that 
we owe the light of the Gospel we now enjoy, to the Fire 
they endured for it, were all Bishops ; and that even now 
in the greatest defection of that Order, there are yet some 
who have conduced in nothing to our late Innovations, but 
in their Silence ; some who in an unexpected and mighty 
Place and Power have expressed an equal moderation and 
humility, being neither ambitious before, nor proud after, 
either of the Crosiers staff, or White staff; some who have 
been Learned Opposers of Popery, and Zealous Suppressors 
of Arminianism, between whom and their Inferior Clergy, 
in frequency of Preaching, hath been no distinction ; whose 
Lives are untouch'd, not only by guilt, but by malice, scarce 
to be equalled by those of any Condition, or to be excelled 
by those in any Calendar ; I doubt not, I say, but if we 
consider this ; this Consideration will bring forth this Con- 
clusion, That Bishops may be good men ; and let us give 
but good men good Rules, we shall have both good Gover- 
nors, and good Times. 

" Mr. Speaker, I am content to take away all those 
things from them, which to any considerable degree of 



1 88 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

probability, may again beget the like mischiefs, if they be 
not taken away. If their Temporal Title, Power and Em- 
ployment, appear likely to distract them from the care of, 
or make them look down with contempt upon their Spiritual 
Duty, and that the too great distance between them, and 
occasion insolence from them to their Inferiors ; let that 
be considered, and cared for, I am sure neither their Lord- 
ships, their judging of Tythes, Wills and Marriages, no nor 
their Voices in Parliaments, are Jure divino ; and I am sure 
that their Titles, and this Power are not necessary to their 
Authority, as appears by the little they have had with us 
by them, and the much that others have had without them. 
" If their Revenue shall appear likely to produce the same 
effects, for it hath been anciently observed, that Religio 
peperit divitias C ma filia devoravit matrem ; let so much of 
that as was in all probability intended for an attendant 
upon their Temporal Dignities, wait upon them out of the 
doors : Let us only take care to leave them such propor- 
tions as may serve in some good degree to the dignity of 
Learning, and the encouragement of Students ; and let us 
not invert that of Jeroboam, and as he made the meanest 
of the people Priests, make the highest of the Priests the 
meanest of the People. If it be feared that they will again 
employ some of our Laws with a severity beyond the in- 
tention of those Laws against some of their weaker Brethren, 
that we may be sure to take away that Power, let us take 
away those Laws, and let no Ceremonies which any number 
counts unlawful, and no man counts necessary, against the 
Rules of Policy and Saint Paul, be imposed upon them. 
Let us consider, that part of the Rule they have hitherto 
gone by, that is, such Canons of their own making, as are 
not confirmed by Parliament ; have been, or, no doubt, 
shortly will be by Parliament, taken away. That the other 
part of the Rule (such Canons as were here received before 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 189 

the Reformation and not contrary to Law) is too doubtful 
to be a fit Rule, exacting an exact knowledge of the Canon 
Law, of the Common Law, of the Statute Law ; knowledges, 
which those who are thus to govern have not, and it is scarce 
fit they should have. Since therefore we are to make new 
Rules," and shall, no doubt, make those new Rules strict 
Rules, and be infallibly certain of a Triennial Parliament, 
to see those Rules observed as strictly as they are made, 
and to increase or change them upon all Occasions, we shall 
have no reason to fear any innovation from their Tyranny 
or to doubt any defect in the discharge of their Duty. I 
am as confident they will not dare, either ordain, suspend, 
silence, excommunicate or deprive, otherwise than we would 
have them; and if this be believed, we shall not think fit 
to abolish, upon a few days' debate an Order which hath 
lasted (as appears by Story) in most Churches these sixteen 
hundred years, and in all from Christ to Calvin ; or in an 
instant change the whole face of the Church like the Scene 
of a Mask. 

" Mr. Speaker, I do not believe them to be Jure divino, 
nay I believe them not to be Jure divino ; but neither do I 
believe them to be Injuria humana ; I neither consider them 
as necessary, nor as unlawful, but as convenient or incon- 
venient : But since all great Mutations in Government are 
dangerous (even where what is introduced by that Mutation 
is such as would have been profitable upon a primary foun- 
dation) and since the greatest danger of Mutations is, that 
all the Dangers and Inconveniencies they may bring, are not 
to be foreseen ; and since no wise man will undergo great 
danger but for great necessity, my Opinion is, that we should 
not root up this Ancient Tree, as dead as it appears, till we 
have tried whether by this, or the like lopping of the Branches, 
the sap which was unable to feed the whole, may not serve 
to make what is left both grow and flourish. And certainly 



i 9 o FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

if we may at once take away both the Inconveniencies of 
Bishops, and the Inconveniencies of no Bishops, that is of 
an almost universal Mutation : this Course can only be 
opposed by those who love Mutation for Mutation sake. 

" Mr. Speaker, To be short (as I have reason to be, after 
having been so long), this trial may be suddenly made : Let 
us commit as much of the Ministers' Remonstrance as we 
have read, that those Heads both of Abuses and Grievances 
which are there fully collected, may be marshall'd and 
ordered for our Debate ; if upon the Debate it shall appear, 
that those may be taken away, and yet the Order stand, we 
shall not need to commit the London Petition at all, for the 
Cause of it will be ended ; if it shall appear that the abolition 
of the one cannot be but by the destruction of the other, 
then let us not commit the London Petition, but let us 
grant it." 

Falkland was preceded in the debate by Rudyard and 
Digby, and followed by Fiennes, Bagshaw, Harbottle Grim- 
ston and others. Rush worth describes the debate as " great 
and tedious," but the speeches may be read at length in his 
collection. In the main the debate would seem to have 
been maintained on a high plane of seriousness and excel- 
lence. Rudyard favoured the scheme of limited Episcopacy 
which afterwards took shape in the Lords' Bill on Church 
Reform. Digby argued for the reform but against the 
abolition of Episcopacy. Fiennes was frankly Presbyterian 
in tone. " Until the ecclesiastical government be something 
of another twist and be more assimilated to that of the Com- 
monwealth, I fear the ecclesiastical government will be no 
good neighbour unto the civil." With the exception of 
Pleydell, there is no reported speech which could possibly 
have satisfied the Arminian party. But the ultimate issue 
of the debate was by no means disconcerting to the 
moderate Episcopalians. The general sense of the House 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 191 

was clearly in favour of a reform of the " excrescenses " of 
Episcopacy, but against the destruction of the institution 
itself. In the event, the House resolved " that the Com- 
mittee of twenty-four with the addition of these six — Sir 
Thos. Roe, Mr. Holies, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Holborne, Mr. 
Fiennes, Sir H. Vane — do take into consideration that part 
of the Ministers' Remonstrance that has been read, and the 
petition of the inhabitants in and about the city of London, 
and other petitions of the like nature that have been read, 
to prepare heads out of them for the consideration of the 
House, the House reserving to itself the main point of 
Episcopacy for to take it into their consideration in due 
time." 

The result may be described as a compromise, but there 
can be no doubt that the balance of victory inclined towards 
those who, following the lead of Falkland, declined to play 
into the hands of the enemies of the established order in the 
Church. Episcopacy was not, for the moment at least, to be 
flung into the crucible. Baillie's comment reflects, accurately 
enough, the existing position. " All are for the erecting of 
a kind of Presbyteries, and for bringing down the Bishops in 
all things, spiritual and temporal, so low as can be with any 
subsistence : but their utter abolition, which is the only aim 
of the most Godlie, is the knott of the whole question : we 
must have it cutted by the axe of prayer ; God, we trust, 
will doe it." He is still hopeful, but no longer confident. 

In March things moved faster. Bills were introduced 
for the ejection of the bishops from the House of Lords and 
the Privy Council, and for disabling any clergyman from 
being in the Commission of the Peace or performing any 
secular functions. The first of these — popularly known as 
the Bishops' Bill — was read a first time on 30th March, 
1641, and finally passed the House of Commons on 1st 
May. Its introduction was noteworthy as the only occasion 



i 9 2 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

on which there was any serious difference of opinion between 
Falkland and Hyde. " When the Bill was put to the ques- 
tion, Mr. Hyde (who was from the beginning known to be 
an enemy to it) spake very earnestly ' for the throwing it 
out '. He said, ' It was changing the whole frame and 
constitution of the kingdom, and of the parliament itself; 
that, from the time that parliaments began, there had never 
been one parliament, when the bishops were not part of it : 
that if they were taken out of the house, there would be but 
two estates left ; for that they as the clergy were the third 
estate, and being taken away, there was nobody left to 
represent the clergy : which would introduce another piece 
of injustice, which no other part of the kingdom could com- 
plain of, who were all represented in parliament, and were 
therefore bound to submit to all that was enacted, because 
it was upon the matter with their own consent : whereas, if 
the bishops were taken from sitting in the house of peers, 
there was nobody who could pretend to represent the clergy ; 
and yet they must be bound by their determinations.' 
When he had done, the Lord Falkland, who always sat 
next him (which was so much taken notice of, that, if they 
came not into the house together, as usually they did, every- 
body left the place for him that was absent), suddenly stood 
up, and declared himself ' to be of another opinion ; and 
that, as he thought the thing itself to be absolutely neces- 
sary for the benefit of the church, which was in so great 
danger ; so he had never heard, that the constitution of the 
kingdom would be violated by the passing that act; and 
that he had heard many of the clergy protest that they could 
not acknowledge that they were represented by the bishops '. 
. . . And so, with some facetiousness, answering some other 
particulars, he concluded, for the passing the act." * With 
characteristic self-consciousness Clarendon declares that " the 

1 History, i., 383. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 193 

House was so marvellously delighted to see the two in- 
separable friends divided in so important a point that 
they could not contain from a kind of rejoicing," the more 
so as Falkland's speech had obviously taken Hyde by sur- 
prise. The Puritans indeed began to entertain "an im- 
agination and hope that they might work the Lord Falkland 
to a further concurrence with them ". They were soon 
undeceived " as there was not the least interruption of close 
friendship between the other two". The Bishops' Bill, 
however, was so fundamentally amended in the House of 
Lords (May 1641) that for the time being it was dropped. 

On the 2 1st October a new Bill — commonly known as 
the Second Bishops' Bill — was introduced in the Commons 
to deprive the bishops of their "votes in Parliament," and 
to disable all clergymen " from the exercise of all temporal 
jurisdiction and authority". The Bill, substantially identical 
with that which the Lords had rejected in May, passed 
the House of Commons without serious opposition. Hyde 
still opposed it, and on this occasion he was supported by 
Falkland. What explanation can be given for this change 
of front? Falkland himself attributes it to the broken 
pledges of Hampden and his friends. Earlier in the year 
Hampden had assured him that "if that Bill (the first 
Bishops' Bill) might pass, there would be nothing more 
attempted to the prejudice of the Church ". This, Falkland 
thought, " as the world then went, would be no ill composi- 
tion". In regard to the bishops' seats in the House of 
Lords he did not himself feel strongly. To him it was a 
matter of expediency rather than of principle, and one 
which the House of Lords might well be left to decide for 
themselves. " We might presume that if they could make 
that appear, that they were a third estate, that the house of 
peers (amongst whom they had sat and had yet their votes) 
would reject it." The Lords had rejected it, and Hampden 

13 



i 9 4 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

might well regard himself as released by that rejection 
from his pledge to Falkland. That Falkland thought 
otherwise is clear, however, from what passed in the later 
debate. Taunted by Hampden with his change of sides, 
he retorted that " he had formerly been persuaded by that 
worthy gentleman to believe many things which he had 
since found to be untrue, and therefore, he had changed 
his opinion in many particulars as well as to things and 
persons". Such recriminations are not, of course, to be 
taken too seriously ; they form the ordinary stock in trade 
of Parliamentary debate, and need not be held to impugn 
the honour or sincerity of either party. At the same 
time it may be well to point out that there was in this 
instance abundant justification both for Hampden and 
Falkland. Hampden's undertaking was not absolute but 
contingent upon the acceptance of the Bishops' Bill by the 
Lords : the Bill was not accepted, and his hands were 
consequently free. Falkland's support of the measure was 
similarly conditional upon the approval of the peers whom 
it more immediately concerned. That approval was with- 
held, and he also was free in future to take his own 
course. 

Between the rejection of the first Bishops' Bill and the 
introduction of the second much had happened. The 
refusal of the Peers to accept a comparatively moderate 
proposal played — not for the last time — into the hands of 
the extremists in the Commons. This fact implies no 
condemnation of the Upper House. Believing the Bishops' 
Bill to be mischievous in tendency and subversive of the 
established order, they rightly declined to allow it to pass 
except in an emasculated form. " Lest a worse thing 
happen " is an argument to which a revising chamber must 
necessarily listen with considerable caution. In this case it 
was notorious that a worse thing was impending, and the 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 195 

attitude of the peers was by no means unconciliatory. 
They declined to allow the exclusion of the spiritual peers 
from their House, but they agreed to the exclusion of the 
clergy generally from civil functions, and on 27th May 
they appointed a Committee to confer with the Commons 
on the Bill. The Commons, on their part, determined to 
prepare a statement of " reasons " on behalf of the Bill. 
These were reported to the House on 4th June, whereupon 
further suggestions were made. " The Lord Falkland," 
says D'Ewes, " Mr. Nath. Fiennes and one or two more 
gave some new reasons to be added to those former whilst 
we were voting the first six, and so it was ordered that 
they should retire into the Committee Chamber and draw 
those reasons which they did accordingly." In view of the 
intrinsic importance of the question, and of the fact that the 
last three articles " emanated from this strange combination, 
Falkland and Fiennes," 1 it is worth while to print the 
reasons in full. 2 

" Reasons of the House of Commons why bishops ought 
not to have votes in the House of Peers : — 

" (1) Because it is a very great hindrance to the discharge 
of their ministerial function. 

" (2) Because they do vow and undertake at their ordina- 
tion when they enter into holy orders, that they will give 
themselves wholly to that vocation. 

" (3) Because councils and canons in several ages do for- 
bid them to meddle with secular affairs. 

" (4) Because the twenty-four bishops have a dependence 
on the two archbishops, and because of their canonical 
obedience to them. 

"(5) Because they are but for life, and therefore are not 
fit to have legal power over the honours, inheritances, lives 
and liberties of others. 

iShaw, op. cit., i., 64. -C. J. 



i 9 6 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

" (6) Because of bishops' dependency and expectancy of 
translation to places of greater profit. 

" (7) That several bishops have of late much encroached 
upon the consciences and liberties of the subject, and they 
and their successors will be much encouraged still to en- 
croach, and the subject will be much discouraged from 
complaining against such encroachment, if twenty-six of 
that order be to be judges upon those complaints. The 
same reason extends to their legislative power in any bill to 
pass for the regulation of their power upon any emergent 
inconveniences by it. 

" (8) Because the whole number of them is interested to 
maintain the jurisdiction of bishops, which hath been found 
so dangerous to the three kingdoms that Scotland hath 
utterly abolished it, and multitudes in England and Ireland 
have petitioned against it. 

" (9) Because the bishops, being Lords of Parliament, it 
setteth too great a distance between them and the rest of 
their brethren in the ministry, which occasioneth pride in 
them, discontent in others, and disquiet in the Church. 

" To their having votes a long time. Answer : If incon- 
venient, time and usage are not to be considered law makers. 
Some abbots voted as anciently as bishops, yet they were 
taken away. That for the bishops' certificate for plenary 
of benefice and loyalty of marriage the bill extends not 
to them. For the secular jurisdictions of the Dean of 
Westminster, the Bishops of Durham and Ely, and the Arch- 
bishop of York, which they are to execute in their own persons 
the former reasons show the inconveniences therein. For 
their temporal courts and jurisdiction, which are executed 
by their temporal officers, the bill doth not concern them." 

In spite of these formulated " reasons " the Lords re- 
mained unconvinced, and on 8th June the Bill was re- 
jected on the third reading. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 197 

Meanwhile the bolt had fallen. On the very day on 
which the Lords held their conference with the Commons 
(27th May), a Bill was introduced into the Lower House 
" for the utter abolishing and taking away of all arch- 
bishops, bishops, their chancellors, commissaries, deans, 
deans and chapters, archdeacons, prebendaries, chanters 
and canons and all other their under officers "} The 
nominal sponsor for the Bill was Sir Edward Dering, the 
weakly consequential member for Kent, but he himself tells 
us that the Bill was " pressed into his hands " by Sir A. 
Hazelrig, who similarly received it from Sir H. Vane and 
Oliver Cromwell. The leadership of the extremists was 
already falling into the hands of Cromwell and the younger 
Vane. 

Nobody seems to have expected the " Root and Branch 
Bill " to pass into law ; but there are various theories as to 
the object with which it was brought in. Some hold that 
it was merely intended to frighten the Lords into accept- 
ance of the less radical proposal ; but the dates, as Dr. 
Shaw points out, negative this view. Others suppose that 
the purpose was to test the feeling of the House of Commons. 
Be this as it may, the reception of the Bill was unexpectedly 
favourable. Mr. Hyde indeed " moved with great warmth 
that the Bill might not be read," and he adds that " the 
rejecting it was earnestly urged by very many ". Among 
these was Falkland, who in the following powerful speech, 2 
gives reasons for his opposition. 

1 Shaw, i., 75. 

2 Gardiner says (ap. D.N.B.) that this speech was delivered "either 
on 27th May or on some subsequent day when the Bill was in Committee " ; 
but I can find no positive evidence of this. The speech is printed in Triplet's 
second edition of the Discourse on Infallibility. It is there described as " A 
draught of a Speech concerning Episcopacy by the lord Viscount Falkland 
found since his death amongst his papers, written with his own hand ". 



198 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

" Mr. Speaker, 

" Whosoever desires this totall change of our 
present government, desires it either out of a conceit that 
it is unlawfull or inconvenient. To both these I shall say 
something. To the first, being able to make no such argu- 
ments to prove it so my selfe as I conceive likely to be 
made within the walls of so wise a House I can make no 
answer to them till I heare them from some other ; which 
then (if they perswade me not) by the liberty of a com- 
mittee I shall doe. But this in generall : in the mean time 
I shall say, that the ground of this government of Episco- 
pacy being so ancient and so generall, so uncontradicted in 
the first and best times, that our most laborious antiquaries 
can find no nation, no city, no church, nor houses under any 
other, that our first ecclesiasticall authors tell us that the 
apostles not only allowed but founded bishops, so that the 
tradition for some books of Scripture which we receive 
as canonicall is both lesse ancient, lesse generall, and lesse 
uncontradicted, I must ask leave to say, that, though the 
mystery of iniquity began suddenly to worke, yet it did not 
instantly prevaile ; it could not ayme at the end of the race 
as soon as it was started, nor could Antichristianisme in so 
short a time have become so Catholique. 

" To the second, this I say, that in this government 
there is no inconvenience which might not be sufficiently 
remedied without destroying the whole ; and though we had 
not paird their nailes, or rather their tongues — I mean the 
High Commission — though we should neither give them the 
direction of strict rules, nor the addition of choyce assisters 
(both which we may doe, and suddenly I hope we shall), 
yet the feare sunk into them of this Parliament, and the 
expectation of a trienniall one, would be such bankes to 
these rivers, that we need feare their inundation no more. 

" Next I say, that, if some inconvenience did appeare in 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 199 

this, yet, since it may also appeare that the change will 
breed greater, I desire those who are led to change by 
inconveniences only that they will suspend their opinions 
till they see what is to be laid in the other ballance, which I 
will endeavour. 

" The inconveniences of the change are double, some that 
it should be yet done, others that it should be at all done ; 
the first again double, because we have not done what we 
should doe first, and because others have not done what 
they should doe first. That which we should doe first, is to 
agree of a succeeding forme of government, that every man, 
when he gives his vote to the destruction of this, may be 
sure that he destroyes not that which he likes better than 
that which shall succeed it. I conceive that no man will at 
this time give this vote who doth not believe this govern- 
ment to be the worst that can possibly be devised ; and for 
my part, if this be thus preposterously done, and we left in 
this blind uncertainty, what shall become of us ? I shall 
not only doubt all the inconveniences which any govern- 
ment hath, but which any government may have. This I 
insist on the rather, because, if we should find cause to wish 
for this back again, we could not have it ; the means being 
disperst, to restore it again would be a miracle in state, like 
that of the resurrection to nature. That which others should 
do first is to be gone. For if you will do this, yet, things 
standing as they do, no great cause appearing for so great 
a change, I feare a great army may be thought to be the 
cause, and I therefore desire (to be sure that Newcastle may 
not be suspected to have any influence upon London) that 
this may not be done till our brethren be returned to their 
patrimony. 

" We are now past the inconveniences in poynt of time ; 
I now proceed, and my first inconvenience of this change is 
the inconvenience of change it selfe, which is so great an 



200 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

inconvenience, when the change is so great and suddain, 
that in such cases, when it is not necessary to change, it is 
necessary not to change. To a person formerly intemperate, 
I have known the first prescription of an excellent physitian 
to forbeare too good a diet for a good while. We have 
lived long happily and gloriously under this form of govern- 
ment ; it hath very well agreed with the constitution of our 
lawes, with the disposition of our people : how any other 
will doe I the lesse knowe because I know not of any other 
of which so much as any other monarchy hath had any 
experience, they all having (as I conceive) at least superin- 
tendents for life, and the mere word bishop, I suppose, is no 
man's aime to destroy, nor no man's aime to defend. 

" Next, sir, I am of opinion, that most men desire not this 
change, or else I am certain there hath been very suddenly 
a great change in men ; severall petitions indeed desire it, 
but, knowing how concerned and how united that party is, 
how few would be wanting to so good a worke, even those 
hands which values their number to others, are an argument 
of their paucity to me. The numberlesse number of those 
of a different sense appeare not so publiquely and cry not 
so loud, being persons more quiet, as secure in the goodnesse 
of their lawes and the wisdome of their law-makers, and 
because men petition for what they have not, and not for 
what they have, perhaps that the bishops may not know how 
many friends their order hath, least they be incouraged to 
abuse their authority if they knew it to be so generally 
approved. Now, sir, though we are trusted by those that 
sent us, in cases wherein their opinions were unknown, yet 
truly, if I knew the opinion of the major part of the town, 
I doubt whether it were the intention of those that trusted 
me that I should follow my own opinion against theirs ; at 
least let us stay till the next session, and consult more 
particularly with them about it. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 201 

" Next, sir, it will be the destruction of many estates in 
which many who may be very innocent persons are legally 
vested, and of many persons who undoubtedly are innocent 
whose dependencies are upon those estates. The Apostle 
saith, he that provides not for his family is worse than an 
infidell : this belongs in some analogy to us ; and truly, sir, 
we provide ill for our family, the common-wealth, if we 
suffer a considerable part of it to be turned out of doores, 
so that, for any care is taken by this bill for new dwelling 
(and I will never consent they shall play an after game for 
all they have), either we must see them starve in the streets 
before us, or, to avoid that, must ship them some whether 
away, like the Moores out of Spaine. 

(< From the hurt of the learned I come to that of learning, 
and desire you to consider whether, when all considerable 
maintenance shall be reduced to those which are in order to 
preaching, the arts and languages, and even eminent skill 
in controversies, to which great leasure and great means is 
required, much neglected, and, to the joy and gain of our 
common adversary, Syntagmes, Postylles, Catechismes, 
Commentators and Concordances almost only bought, and 
the rest of libraries remain rather as of ornament than as of 
use. I doe not deny but, for all this want, the wit of some 
hath been attempted both, and the parts of some few have 
served to discharge both, and those of Calvin to advise about 
and dispatch more temporall businesse into the bargain then 
all our Privy Councell. Yet such abilities are extreamly 
rare, and very few will ever preach twice a Sunday, and be 
any match for Bellarmine ; nay, I feare, sir, that this will 
make us to have fewer able even in preaching it selfe, as it 
is separated from generall learning, for I feare many, whose 
parts, friends and meanes, might make them hope for better 
advancements in other courses, when these shall be taken 
away from this, will be lesse ready to embrace it ; and 



202 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

though it were to be wisht that all men should only under- 
take those embassages with reference to his honour whose 
embassadors they are, yet I doubt not but many who have 
entered into the church by the doore, or rather by the 
window, have done it after great and sincere service, and 
better reasons have made them labour in the vineyard then 
brought them thither at first ; and though the meer love of 
God ought to make us good, though there were no reward 
or punishment, yet it would be very inconvenient to piety 
that hope of heaven and fear of hell were taken away. 

" My next inconvenience, I feare, is this, that if we should 
take away a government which hath as much testimony of 
the first antiquity to have been founded by the apostles, as 
can be brought for some parts of Scripture to have been 
written by them, least this may avert some of our Church 
from us, and rivet some of the Roman Church to her : and 
as I remember, the apostle commands us to be carefull 
not to give scandall even to those that are without. Sir, 
it hath been said that we have a better way to know Scrip- 
ture than by tradition : I dispute not this, sir, but I know 
that tradition is the only argument to prove Scripture to 
another, and the first to every man's selfe, being compared 
to the Samaritan woman's report, which made many first 
believe in Christ, though they after believed him for him- 
selfe ; and I therefore would not have this so farre weakned 
to us as to take away Episcopacy as unlawfull, which is so 
farre by tradition proved to be lawfull. 

" My next inconvenience that I feare is this : having 
observed those generally who are against bishops (I will 
not now speak of such as are among us, who, by being 
selected from the rest, are to be hoped to be freer than 
ordinary from vulgar passions) to have somewhat more 
animosity against those who are for them than vice versa, 
least when they shall have prevailed against the bishops 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 203 

they be so farre enraged against their partakers, and will so 
have discouraged their adversaries, as in time to induce a 
necessity upon others, at least of the clergy, to believe them 
as unlawfull as they themselves doe, and to assent to other 
of their opinions yet left at large : which will be a way to 
deprive us, I think, of not our worst, I am sure of our most 
learned ministers, and to send a greater colonie to New Eng- 
land than it hath been said this Bill will recall from thence. 

" I come now from the inconveniences of taking away this 
government to the inconveniences of that which shall suc- 
ceed it : and to this I can speake but by guesse and groping, 
because I have no light given me what that shall be ; onely 
I hope I shall be excused for shooting at randome, since 
you will set me up no butt to shoot at. The first I feare 
the Scotch government will either presently be taken ; or, if 
any other succeed for a while, yet the unity and industry of 
those of that opinion in this nation, assisted by the counsell 
and friendship of that, will shortly bring it in, if any lesse 
opposite government to it be here placed then that of 
Episcopacy. And indeed, sir, since any other government 
than theirs will by no means give any satisfaction to their 
desire of uniformity, since all they who see not the dis- 
honour and ill consequences of it will be unwilling to deny 
their brethren what they esteeme indifferent, since our owne 
government being destroyed we shall in all likelyhood be 
aptest to receive that which is both next at hand and ready 
made : For thes reasons I look upon it as probable ; and 
for the following ones, as inconvenient. 

"When some bishops pretended to jure divino (though 
nothing so likely to be believed by the people as these 
would be, nor consequently to hurt us by that pretence), 
this was cry'd out upon as destructive to his Majesties 
supremacy, who was to be confessed to be the fountaine 
of jurisdiction in this kingdome. Yet to jure divino that 



204 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

ecclesiasticall government pretends, to meet when they 
please, to treat of what they please, to excommunicate 
whom they please, even Parliaments themselves ; so farre 
are they from receiving either rules or punishments from 
them. And for us to bring in any unlimited, any inde- 
pendent authority, the first is against the liberty of the 
Subject, the second against the right and privilege of Parlia- 
ment, and both against the Protestation. 

" If it be said, that this unlimitednesse and independence 
is onely in spirituall things, I first answer, that, arbitrary 
government being the worst of governments, and our bodies 
being worse than our soules, it will be strange to set up that 
over the second, of which we were so impatient over the 
first. Secondly, that M y - Sollicitor} speaking about the 
power of the clergy to make canons to bind, did excellently 
informe us what a mighty influence spirituall power hath 
upon temporall affaires, so that, if our clergy had the one, 
they had inclusively almost all the other. And to this I 
may adde, what all men may see, the vast temporall power 
of the Pope, allowed him by such who allow it him only in 
ordine ad spiritualia : for the fable will tell you, if you make 
the lyon judge (and the clergy assisted by the people is 
lyon enough), it was a wise feare of the foxes, least he might 
call a knubbe a home. And sure, sir, they will in this case 
be judges, not only of that which is spirituall, but of what it 
is that is so : and the people, receiving instruction from no 
other, will take the most temporall matter to be spirituall, if 
they tell them it is so." 

Despite this powerful opposition the Bill was read twice 
on the day of its introduction — the second time by 139 
votes to 108. 

On the motion to go into Committee there was " a very 
long debate " as to who should be in the chair. The pro- 
1 Oliver St. John. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 205 

moters of the Bill wanted " to put Mr. Hyde into the chair 
that he might not give them trouble by frequent speaking 
and not too much obstruct the expediting the Bill ". Their 
opponents wanted Mr. Crewe. Eventually Hyde was chosen, 
and boasts that from the chair he was able to do much to 
retard the progress of the Bill. The measure excited, it 
would seem, little general interest in the House ; the ex- 
treme Puritans mustered in force, but the attendance in 
Committee was so thin, especially after dinner, that Falkland 
used mockingly to say that " they who hated bishops hated 
them worse than the devil : and that they who loved them 
did not love them so well as their dinner ". Notwithstand- 
ing Hyde's ingenious obstruction the Bill made consider- 
able progress in Committee, but after the King's departure 
for Scotland it was virtually dropped, and when Parliament 
reassembled after the recess (20th October, 1641) it was 
finally abandoned. 

On the following day (21st October) the Second Bishops' 
Bill was, as we have seen, introduced ; in two days it was 
through the Commons and was read a first time in the 
Lords on 23rd October. There the matter rested for two 
months, and the Lords showed no disposition to resume 
consideration of it. But at the end of December the 
bishops — or a party of them — played into the hands of their 
enemies. Feeling was running high against them in London, 
and more than once bishops had been mobbed on their way 
to the House of Lords. On 30th December twelve bishops, 
swayed, as Clarendon puts it, " by the pride and insolence 
of that anti-prelatical Archbishop" (Williams of York), 
entered a formal protest against " all laws, orders, votes, 
resolutions and determinations, as in themselves null and 
of none effect," passed in their absence since 27th December, 
or hereafter to be passed "during the time of this their 
forced and violent absence ". The protest may, considering 



206 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

the circumstances, have been indiscreet, but it afforded no 
ground whatever for prosecution. The temper of both 
Houses was, however, curiously aroused ; the twelve bishops 
were impeached for high treason and were committed to the 
Tower. Next day the Commons reminded the Lords of 
the neglected Bill. The Lords gave it a second reading on 
4th February, 1642, and a third, under protest 1 from the 
Bishops of Winchester, Worcester and Rochester, 2 on the 
5th. On 14th February, to the dismay of Hyde, it re- 
ceived the Royal assent. It was the last Act of real import- 
ance to which the King gave his assent before the outbreak 
of the Civil War. 

To this step he was persuaded, according to Clarendon, 3 
by Sir John Culpepper ; but Culpepper's arguments were 
warmly seconded by the Queen, who seems to have been 
afraid that, if the concession were not made, her journey to 
the Continent might be stopped. Hyde was certainly in 
the intimate confidence of the King at this time, but his 
own words suggest, though he implies the contrary, that 
Falkland's opinion may well have coincided with that of 
Culpepper. The Churchmanship both of Culpepper and 
Falkland was of a very different colour from that of their 
unofficial colleague. Falkland, said the latter, 4 "had a 
better opinion of the Church of England, and the religion 
of it, than any other Church and religion ; and had extra- 
ordinary kindness for very many church-men ; and if he 
could have helped or prevented it, there should have been 
no attempts against it. But he had in his own judgment 
such a latitude in opinion, that he did not believe any part 
of the order or government of it to be so essentially neces- 
sary to religion, but that it might be parted with, and 
altered, for a notable public benefit or convenience ; and 
that the crown itself ought to gratify the people, in yielding 

1 Not a formal one. 2 Drs. Curie, Prideaux and Warner. 

3 Life, i., 114. 4 Ibid., i., 105. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 207 

to many things ; and to part with some power, rather than 
to run the hazards which would attend the refusal. But 
he was swayed in this by a belief that the King would in the 
end be prevailed with to yield to what was pressed ; and this 
opinion wrought too much upon too many." If any good 
political purpose could be served by the exclusion of the 
bishops from the House of Lords, Falkland was not the 
man — any more than Culpepper — to persuade the King to 
hold out against it. 

But the Bishops' Exclusion Act, seriously as it affected 
the fabric of the State, did not in itself essentially touch the 
fabric of the Church. The Root and Branch Bill did. That 
Bill, however, was for the moment dropped. What reason 
can be assigned for the action, or rather the inaction of 
Parliament? Had the Bill served its purpose? Did Pym 
think that enough had been done ? Was he afraid of con- 
solidating the Royalist party ? Were the extremists satisfied 
for the time being with exclusion ? Were they too fully 
occupied with other things? All these reasons may well 
have been present to the minds of the leaders. But the 
essential reason was that they were not prepared with an 
alternative. 

It requires some effort to enable the critic of to-day 
to grasp the situation. I have endeavoured in a previous 
chapter to explain it. 1 The " root and branch " reformer of 
to-day is, as regards the religious establishment, merely de- 
structive. He is content to sever the connection of Church 
and State, and to leave it to " the Churches " to rebuild the 
spiritual edifices as they will. Not so the root and branch 
reformer of 1641. He still deemed it incumbent upon him 
to rebuild. The fibres of Church and State were too closely 
interwoven to permit the passing of an Act simply destruc- 
tive in its operation. It was easy enough, for example, to 

!Bk. i., ch. in. 



208 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

abolish, by a stroke of the pen, the Ecclesiastical Courts : 
but what was to be put in their place ? Parliament might 
get rid of bishops and deans, but some provision would still 
have to be made for the government of the Church. This 
is the essential point of difference between the root and 
branch man of 1641 and the " liberationist " of to-day, and 
it is all important to understand it. The former had to deal 
with the Church ; the latter is concerned with the Churches. 
Much as men might differ among themselves as to the par- 
ticular form of ecclesiastical organisation which should re- 
present the State in its spiritual aspect, most, if not all, were 
agreed in the conviction that such a representation was 
essential to the body politic. After the first civil war the 
Independent ideal forged more and more rapidly to the 
front, but as late as 1645 the main point at issue between 
the " out and out Presbyterians," like Baillie, and the " lame 
Erastian lawyers," such as Selden, was whether the State 
should be subordinate to the Church, or the Church to the 
State. Vane's proposal, when the Commons were in Com- 
mittee on the Root and Branch Bill, not less than the Bill 
on Church Reform J read twice in the Lords, make it clear 
that had bishops been " extirpated " Parliament would still 
have felt it necessary to provide for the performance of many 
of their functions. 

The fact is that the dominant sentiment of the Long 
Parliament as regards the Church was neither Episcopalian, 
Presbyterian nor Independent ; it was Erastian. Amid 
infinite variety of opinions, two conclusions more and more 
clearly emerged : first, that there must be some form of 
ecclesiastical organisation ; and, secondly, that whatever the . 
form might be, its government must be strictly controlled 
by Parliament. It was this Erastian temper which in the 
autumn of 1641 secured for the King the adherence of the 

1 See Gardiner, Documents, p. 94, for text of this interesting proposal. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 209 

High Episcopalians, in 1642 that of the Broad Churchmen, 
and in 1646 that of the Presbyterians. Arminians like 
Clarendon, liberal Churchmen like Falkland, and Presby- 
terians like Baillie, were equally opposed, though on different 
grounds, to the dictation of a Parliamentary majority in the 
spiritual sphere. Yet none were prepared for, perhaps none 
perceived, the only logical alternative. 



14 



CHAPTER IV 

THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE— FALKLAND AND PYM 

IN order to present a clear and connected view of the 
Church question in the Long Parliament, and of Falk- 
land's relation thereto, chronological narrative has been 
abandoned. It is necessary, therefore, briefly to recall the 
sequence of events. 

On 9th September, 1641, Parliament, after ten months of 
continuous sittings, adjourned for a brief recess. A month 
earlier, on 10th August, the King, despite the urgent en- 
treaty of Parliament, had set out for his northern king- 
dom. In this journey Parliament found fresh ground for 
the suspicions which for the last six months at least had 
never been long absent from their minds. Throughout that 
period their debates had been conducted under the constant 
dread that the King would throw himself upon the army and 
effect a coup d'etat. The precise truth as to successive 
" Army Plots," with reports of which Pym periodically 
terrified the House, is still a matter for conjecture. Fortun- 
ately it is not essential to the immediate purpose to at- 
tempt a disentanglement of the confusion. All that need be 
said is, that as the archives are being gradually compelled 
to reveal the secrets of all hearts, it becomes increasingly 
clear that Pym's information though rarely precise was in the 
main substantially accurate. We may indeed take it for 
granted that had the King and Queen seen a favourable oppor- 



THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE 211 

tunity for the employment of force against Parliament they 
would not have scrupled to use it. What is more difficult to 
appreciate is the moral guilt which such action would have 
involved. That it would have been politically suicidal is 
indisputable : but why it should be more morally reprehen- 
sible for the King to employ the English army to coerce 
Parliament, than for Parliament to employ the Scotch army 
to coerce the King, is one of the many questions in which 
the orthodox historians have confused simple issues. It is, 
however, none the less important to remember that most of 
the work of the Long Parliament was done under the shadow 
of this fear. 

Among those who pressed upon the King the advis- 
ability of postponing the journey to Scotland no one appears 
to have been more insistent than Falkland. 

Throughout the summer he was untiring in the discharge 
of his Parliamentary duties, and it is plain that the con- 
fidence reposed by his fellow-members in his moderation, 
judgment and good sense was equal to his own conscien- 
tious zeal. His name was included in nearly all the more 
important of the innumerable committees appointed by the 
House, and he was frequently selected to manage and report 
on the conferences with the Lords. Nor did his duties 
cease with the adjournment, as he was called upon to serve 
on a committee appointed by the Commons to watch the 
progress of events — more particularly in Scotland — during 
the recess. 

Parliament reassembled on 20th October, and it became 
immediately apparent that Pym and his friends of the ex- 
treme left had made up their minds to provoke an open 
rupture with the King. 

Nor is it difficult to appreciate their reasons. The recess 
had witnessed a distinct and increasing reaction in the King's 
favour. Such reactions are common phenomena in the 



212 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

history of popular movements, and we need be at no special 
pains to account for this one. None the less it is important 
to understand the reasons. Among these the most potent 
was probably the violence of the Parliamentary attack upon 
the Church. Even the Puritan May admits that " if Parlia- 
ment had not so far drawn religion into their cause it might 
have sped better". The people had no love for the 
Arminian bishops, and had a wholesome dread of the juris- 
diction of their courts ; but there is no evidence that they 
desired a radical change of system. Still less is it clear 
that they were ready to embrace Presbyterianism. The 
bitter Presbyterianism of London gave it an entirely dispro- 
portionate influence upon the proceedings in Parliament ; 
but outside London there was no enthusiasm for the Genevan 
system, except perhaps in Lancashire. On the other hand, 
there was a growing disgust at the outrages which were 
perpetrated in the churches. Clarendon declares that these 
outrages were actually instigated by the Parliamentary 
majority, and even May admits that Parliament did nothing 
to restrain them, being " either too much busied in variety of 
affairs, or perchance too much fearing the loss of a consider- 
able party, whom they might have need of against a real 
and potent enemy ". Another powerful reason for reaction 
was the pressure of Parliamentary taxation — imposed largely 
for the support of their Scotch allies. For eleven years the 
mass of the people had been virtually ignorant of taxation ; 
individuals suffered, but the country at large escaped. The 
revival of Parliamentary sessions of course brought a re- 
newal of regular taxation, a species of " constitutionalism " 
which could not be expected to enhance the value of popular 
institutions in the eyes of the taxpayers. Finally, things 
looked hopeful for peace. The King, contrary to expecta- 
tion, had passed through the armies encamped in the North 
without an attempt to tamper with their loyalty. Those 



THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE 213 

armies were now happily disbanded ; the Scots had recrossed 
the Tweed before the end of September, and the English 
troops had dispersed. Was there not a reasonable chance 
that the quarrel might still be composed and that the King 
might be induced loyally to accept the position of a con- 
stitutional sovereign ? So far as the country knew, his 
conduct, since Parliament met, had been unexceptionable. 
He had refused nothing that Parliament asked. He had 
assented to the revolutionary proposal that the existing 
Parliament should not be dissolved without its own consent ; 
he had not withheld the sacrifice of his ablest and most 
devoted counsellor. More than that, he had been anxious 
to call to his counsels the leaders of the party which 
was predominant in Parliament. Something in the nature 
of a modern " ministry " might have been formed, including 
Lord Say, Lord Essex, Denzil Holies and Lord Bedford, 
with Pym himself as Chancellor of the Exchequer. No 
stronger proof of good faith could have been given by the 
King, and but for the death — ever to be lamented — of Lord 
Bedford, such a ministry would probably have been formed 
in the spring of 1641. Is it wonderful, in view of such 
considerations, that the country should, in the early autumn, 
have begun to settle down, or that men should have turned 
hopeful eyes towards the dawn of a brighter day ? 

It was this growing confidence in the King's good faith 
which Pym set himself steadfastly to combat. In this 
endeavour he was powerfully assisted by the current of 
events in Scotland and Ireland. Parliament had no sooner 
reassembled after the recess than Pym laid before it in- 
formation as to the existence of a widespread conspiracy in 
the reactionary interest. In the midst of the debate letters 
arrived from Hampden, who was still in attendance on the 
King in Edinburgh, containing news of the " Incident ". 
This was a plot, disclosed on nth October, for the assassina- 



214 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

tion of Argyle and Hamilton. No evidence has ever been 
produced to connect the King with this murderous design, 
but the news was sufficiently alarming to enable Pym to 
carry his point. Falkland and Hyde ridiculed the idea that 
danger could arise to England from an attack upon the 
Covenanter leaders in Scotland, and proposed that the 
business of Scotland should be left in the hands of the 
Scottish Parliament. But the fears of the Commons were 
aroused ; resolutions were adopted for immediate conference 
with the Lords on the safety of the kingdom, and it was 
ordered that an express messenger be sent to the Committee 
of both Houses in Scotland to let them know "that the 
Parliament takes well their advertizement and that they 
conceive the peace of that kingdom concerns the good of 
this ". The Lords immediately agreed that a hundred men 
from the trained bands of Westminster should be called up 
to guard the two Houses by day and night. 

Ten days later news reached London of the outbreak of 
the Irish Rebellion. The wildest reports were quickly in 
circulation. Rumour had it that almost the whole Protes- 
tant population of Ulster had been put to the sword : Clar- 
endon declares that 40,000 or 50,000 were murdered, and 
May puts it at 200,000. The lowest estimates were largely 
in excess of the truth. The news, however, was nothing less 
than a godsend to Pym. That the King had long been in 
negotiation with the Irish Lords was notorious : what more 
natural than to suppose that the explosion was due to his 
intrigues? Historical research has acquitted the King of 
all direct complicity in the rebellion, but as to the precise 
truth of the details we are not concerned. It is sufficient to 
note the effect of the news upon the political situation in 
England. Pym had long been anxious that Parliament 
should formulate and publish a manifesto against the King. 
His opportunity had come. 



THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE 215 

On 4th November Parliament, despite the warnings of 
Culpepper and Falkland, decided to accept the offer made 
by the Scottish Parliament to provide 1,000 men for the 
suppression of the Irish Rebellion. Anything more calcu- 
lated to pour oil upon the flames in Ireland can hardly be 
conceived ; but Pym was playing his game with consum- 
mate skill, and under repeated shocks administered by him 
Parliament was giving way to panic. On 5th November 
Pym again startled the House by a declaration which alike 
from the point of view of immediate results and of ultimate 
significance can only be described as epoch-making. No 
man was readier than himself, he declared, " to engage his 
estate, his person, his life for the suppression of the Irish 
Rebellion, but all that they did would be in vain as long as 
the King gave ear to the counsellors about him. His 
Majesty must be told that Parliament finds evil counsel- 
lors to have been the cause of all these troubles in Ireland ; 
and that unless the Sovereign will be pleased to free himself 
from such, and take only counsellors whom the kingdom 
can confide in, Parliament will hold itself absolved from 
giving assistance in the matter." In these words Pym an- 
nounced the central point of the scheme of reform to be 
subsequently embodied in the Grand Remonstrance. 

The House seems instantly to have apprehended the 
significance of the declaration. A scene of great excitement 
ensued. Amid shouts of "Well moved, well moved," Hyde 
rose to oppose Pym's motion on the ground that by such 
an instruction "we should, as it were, menace the King". 
Pym was obliged for the moment to give way, but three 
days later (8th November) he again proposed his resolution 
and carried it by a majority of 15 1 to 1 10. In its later and 
amended form the resolution declared that the King should 
be asked " to employ only such counsellors and ministers as 
should be approved by his Parliament ; failing which Parlia- 



216 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

ment would be compelled to take measures on their own 
part, for the defence of Ireland and their own liberties, and 
to commend those aids and contributions which this great 
necessity shall require to the custody and disposing of such 
persons of honour and fidelity as we have cause to confide 
in." 

On the same day the Grand Remonstrance was pre- 
sented to the House. 

That memorable manifesto consists of 204 clauses. 
These were debated seriatim often with great heat between 
8th and 20th November. On the latter date the Remon- 
strance was laid upon the table in its complete form. There- 
upon Pym, yielding to the pressure of Falkland and his 
friends, fixed the final debate for Monday, 22nd November. 
The extremists were disgusted at the delay. Cromwell, 
" who at that time was little taken notice of," x asked Falk- 
land as they left the House " why he would have it put 
off, for that day would quickly have determined it ? " He 
answered, " There would not have been time enough, for 
sure it would take some debate ". " A very sorry one," re- 
torted Cromwell. " They supposing," adds Clarendon, "by 
the computation they had made, that very few would 
oppose it." 

Monday, the 22nd of November, was one of the most 
fateful days in the history of the Long Parliament, and 
indeed in the history of England. The debate, contrary to 
Cromwell's expectation, was long and fierce. Starting " about 
nine of the clock in the morning, it continued all that day; 
and candles being called for when it grew dark . . . the 
debate continued, till after it was twelve of the clock with 
much passion ". Hyde himself led off and was immediately 
followed by Falkland. " Lord Falkland (says Forster) rose 
immediately after Hyde, and, as his wont was, spoke with 

1 Clarendon, iv., 42. 



THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE 217 

greater passion in his warmth and earnestness ; his thin 
high-pitched voice breaking into a scream, and his little, 
spare, slight frame trembling with eagerness. He ridiculed 
the pretention set up in the Declaration to claim any right 
of approval over the councillors whom the King should 
name ; as if priest and clerk should divide nomination and 
approval between them. He denounced it as unjust that the 
concealing of delinquents should be cast upon the King. 
He said (forgetting a former speech of his own going directly 
to this point) it was not true to allege that Laud's party in 
the Church were in league with Rome ; for that Arminians 
agreed no more with Papists than with Protestants. And, 
with the power to make laws, why should they resort to 
declarations ? Only where no law was available were they 
called to substitute orders and ordinances to command or 
forbid. Reminding them of the existing state of Ireland, 
and of the many disturbances in England, he warned them 
that it was of a very dangerous consequence at that time to 
set out any remonstrance : at least such a remonstrance as 
this, containing many harsh expressions. Above all, it was 
dangerous to declare what they intended to do hereafter, 
as that they would petition his Majesty to take advice of 
his parliament in the choice of his privy council ; and it was 
of the very worst example to make such allusion as that 
wherein they declared that already they had committed a 
bill to take away bishops' votes. He pointed out the 
injustice of imputing to the bishops generally the descrip- 
tion of the Scotch War as belluvi episcopate, which he 
asserted had been so used by only one of them. He very 
hotly condemned the expression of 'bringing in idolatry,' 
which he characterised as a charge of a high crime against 
all the bishops in the land. And he denounced it as a 
manifest contradiction and absurdity, that after reciting, as 
they had indeed sufficient cause to do, the many good laws 



218 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

passed by a parliament of which bishops and Popish lords 
were component members, they should end by declaring 
that while bishops and Popish lords continued to sit in 
parliament no good laws could be made." * Dering followed 
Falkland in his opposition ; Rudyard warmly approved the 
narrative portion of the Remonstrance, but objected " to 
what he would call the prophetic alpart ". Pym's powerful 
reply was addressed, with true debating instinct, to Falkland ; 
but neither now nor at any time during the last weeks did 
he lose hold of the vital clause of the Remonstrance. " We 
have suffered so much by counsellors of the King's chusing that 
we desire him to advise with us about it." Many speakers 
followed Pym, and not until after midnight was the question 
at last put. On the final division the Remonstrance was 
carried by 159 votes to 148. Both Clarendon and White- 
locke declare that the Puritans wore down their opponents 
by sheer physical endurance, and Rudyard compared the 
result to the " verdict of a starved jury ". But in view of 
the fact that large numbers of members refused to return 
to Westminster for the autumn session, the division was a 
large one, and there is no reason to suppose that the Royal- 
ists were inferior in endurance to their opponents. 

But even now the fight was not ended. The numbers 
were no sooner announced than Peard jumped up and 
moved that the manifesto should be printed. A scene of 
unparalleled confusion followed, which, but for Hampden's 
tact, might well have ended in a hand-to-hand fight. 
Palmer moved that the clerk should take down the names 
of the opponents of the Declaration with a view to ultimate 
protest. " All, all," shouted Hyde and his friends. " All, 

1 Forster, Grand Remonstrance, p. 287. Forster's account is obviously 
coloured by his own sympathies ; but it is skilfully compiled from the notes 
of Verney and D'Ewes, and probably represents Falkland's utterance with 
as much accuracy as we can hope to attain. 



THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE 219 

all," re-echoed from all sides of the House. " Some," says 
D'Ewes, 1 " waved their hats over their heads, and others 
took their swords in their scabbards out of their belts, and 
held them by the pummels in their hands, setting the lower 
part on the ground ; so, as if God had not prevented it 
there was very great danger that mischief might have been 
done." Sir Philip Warwick recalls with even more pictur- 
esque imagery his recollection of the famous scene : " I 
thought we had all sat in the valley of the shadow of 
death, for we, like Joab's and Abner's young men, had 
catcht at each others locks, and sheathed our swords in each 
others bowels, had not the sagacity and great calmness of 
Mr. Hambden by a short speech prevented it ". 2 

The House rose "just when the clock struck two the 
ensuing morning," after deciding by 124 to 101 that the 
Declaration should " not be printed without the particular 
order of the House ". As the members hurried out of the 
House Falkland paused to inquire sarcastically of Cromwell 
" whether there had been a debate ? " To which Cromwell 
answered " that he would take his word another time " : and 
whispered him in the ear with some asseveration " that if the 
remonstrance had been rejected he would have sold all he 
had the next morning, and never have seen England more ; 
and he knew there were many other honest men of the 
same resolution ". " So near," adds Clarendon in relating 
the story, "was the poor kingdom at that time to its 
deliverance." 

No apology is needed for having described in consider- 
able detail the circumstances attendant upon the passing 
of the Grand Remonstrance. Alike in the political life of 
Falkland and in the history of the rebellion it marks the 
parting of the ways. At this point every student of the 
period is compelled to pause and ask, " Should I have voted 
l Ap. Forster, p. 324. 2 Memoirs, p. 202. 



220 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Aye or No ; should I have stood with Falkland or with 
Pym ? " No attempt can be made to answer the question 
here ; but whatever the answer of individuals may be, no 
one will deny that the Remonstrance is a document of the 
first importance. Consisting in part of an historical retro- 
spect recounting all the grievances which had accumulated 
since the accession of the King ; in part of an outlined 
scheme of constructive reform, the Remonstrance was prim- 
arily intended to excite popular feeling against the reigning 
sovereign, to reanimate, as Hallam puts it, " discontents 
almost appeased," and to guard the people " against the 
confidence they were beginning to place in the King's 
sincerity". Two questions, therefore, may fairly be asked, 
(i) Was the appeal to the people against the Crown a 
political necessity? And (ii) Was the scheme of reform 
statesmanlike and sound ? That nothing but necessity can 
justify a step which led inevitably to civil war needs no argu- 
ing. Lord Lytton, writing in i860, regarded the Remon- 
strance as either a great blunder or a great crime — a blunder 
if Pym was sincere in his desire to retain the monarchy, a 
crime if he was not. Hallam, a generation earlier, held much 
the same view. Gardiner's guarded but decided approbation 
rests mainly upon the documents which in recent years 
have come to light, and which in the main tend to confirm 
Pym's deep-rooted conviction of the King's duplicity. If 
Charles I. was really sincere in the concessions which in the 
last twelve months he had made ; if he was minded to play 
with straightforward honesty the part of a constitutional sove- 
reign, the work of Hampden and Pym was both a blunder 
and a crime. The difficulty of the popular leaders was 
this. They were, as we now know, in possession of informa- 
tion sufficient to satisfy their own minds as to the intrigues 
of the Court, but not circumstantial or precise enough to con- 
vince others. Could they, in view of their own knowledge, 



THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE 221 

take the responsibility of allowing the country at large to 
bestow upon the King a renewal of confidence ? But for the 
Scotch " Incident" and the Irish Rebellion they would prob- 
ably have been compelled to run the risk. Puritans as 
they were they could hardly fail to discern in those oppor- 
tune events the hand of the Lord pointing in the direction 
in which they were already fain to go. 

To Falkland, on the other hand, the balance of argument 
seemed decidedly against a step which was admittedly re- 
volutionary, and which could hardly fail to embroil the coun- 
try in a fratricidal war. The danger of a coup d'etat was not 
present to his mind, as it was to Pym's. Events in Scotland 
and Ireland would naturally wear a different aspect to one 
who was not yet convinced of the duplicity of the King, and 
who was entirely ignorant of the intrigues of the Queen. 
Moreover, he was not prepared to face the risks involved 
in the overthrow of the Monarchy and the Church. The 
Church of England, with all its defects, stood in his eyes 
for intellectual freedom and for moral order against the 
narrow intolerance, not to say the social anarchy, threatened 
by a Puritan ascendancy. The Crown stood for ordered 
political progress against the encroachments of a usurping 
assembly. And who shall say that Falkland was wrong ? 
True it is that clause 197 1 of the Grand Remonstrance is 
the protoplasm of constitutional evolution as we in this 
country have conceived it. But that clause had no immedi- 
ate results. The written Constitutions of the Common- 
wealth and Protectorate make no attempt to develope the 
idea of a Parliamentary executive, and the Cabinet system 
might, in its entirety, have been long deferred but for the 
accident that George I. had no English and Walpole no 
German. For all that, the secret of the future was with 
Pym; and Pym — as a Constitution maker — is entitled to 

1 Cf. chap, ii., p. 24, supra. 



222 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

all the credit which properly belongs to one who is ahead 
of his time. But it must be remembered that England had 
to wade through a sea of blood to the realisation of Pym's 
ideal. Falkland and his friends may have seen less clearly 
the ultimate solution, or may have been less unwilling to 
postpone it, but they were more keenly alive to the immedi- 
ate risks. 



CHAPTER V 

FALKLAND AS SECRETARY OF STATE 

FALKLAND did not attempt to evade the obligations 
imposed upon him by his vote on the Grand Remon- 
strance. If he was not prepared to adhere to the programme 
of the popular leaders, he was bound to accept responsibility 
for the policy of the Crown. Three days after the passing 
of the Remonstrance, the King entered London in semi- 
triumph on his return from Scotland (25th November). 
On 1st December the Remonstrance was presented to 
him. Precisely a month later Falkland accepted office as 
Secretary of State and was sworn of the Privy Council. 1 
Sir John Culpepper took office at the same time as Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer. Hyde only declined the Solicitor- 
Generalship on the ground, as he assured the King, " that 
he should be able to do much more service in the con- 
dition he was in, than he should be if that were improved 
by any preferment that could be conferred upon him at 
that time " ; and he added : " that he had the honour 
to have much friendship with the two persons who were 
very seasonably advanced by his Majesty, when his 

1 1st January, 1641-42. — " This day Lucius Viscount Falkland was 
sworne of his Mats most Honble Privy Counsell, by his Mats command 
sitting in Counsell, took his place and signed with the other Lords." 

8th January. — " This day his Ma'ie present in Counsell and by his Royal 
Command the Lord V* Falkland was sworne one of his Ma's Principall 
Secretaries of State" (Privy Council Register). 

223 



224 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Majesty's service in the House of Commons did in truth 
want some countenance and support ; and by his conversa- 
tion with them, he should be so well instructed by them, 
that he should be more useful to his Majesty than if he 
were under a nearer relation of dependence ". The King 
graciously agreed, promised early preferment to Hyde, 
assured him that it was their friendship with him which had 
induced him to the choice of Falkland and Culpepper, 
begged the three friends to " confer together how to con- 
duct his service in the House," and promised " that he 
would do nothing that in any degree concerned or related 
to his service in the House of Commons without their 
joint advice and exact communication to them of all his 
own conceptions". From this wise resolution the King, 
as the sequel will show, " in very few days very fatally 
swerved". 

The King's efforts to obtain something in the nature of 
a "responsible" ministry have not perhaps received either 
the notice or the credit which they deserve. Lord Lytton x 
rightly lays great stress on the attempt, already noticed, 
to form a ministry under the Earl of Bedford, and thus to 
regulate the popular movement " to the ends compatible 
with constitutional monarchy by imposing on the con- 
science of its leaders the responsibilities that attach to the 
advisers of the Crown ". This attempt made early in the 
session was unhappily frustrated by the death of Bedford. 
Three times at least during the last few months there 
had been rumours that Pym was to become Chancellor 
of the Exchequer : in February, again towards the end 
of April, and in December. Twice the King had sent for 
him to take counsel with him ; so lately indeed as the 
morning of the day on which Culpepper received the seals. 
Naturally, however, since the autumn recess the King's 

1 Op. cit. 



FALKLAND AS SECRETARY OF STATE 225 

mind had been turning towards the men who, led by- 
Falkland and Hyde, were organising a strong Royalist 
party in the House of Commons. So far back as July 
the King had sent for Hyde and had told him "that 
he heard from all hands how much he was beholden to 
him". 1 On 29th October Secretary Nicholas writes to 
the King to bring to his notice the notable services of 
this new Royalist party in the debate on "responsible" 
ministers. " I may not forbear to let your Majesty know 
that the Lord Falkland, Sir John Strangways, Mr. Waller, 
Mr. Edward Hyde and Mr. Holborne, and divers others, 
stood as champions in maintenance of your prerogative, 
and showed for it unanswerable reason and undeniable pre- 
cedents, whereof your Majesty shall do well to take some 
notice, as your Majesty shall think best for their encour- 
agement." 2 Shortly afterwards, Hyde was sent for to see 
Nicholas who lay sick in bed. " The business," says Claren- 
don, " was wholly to show him a letter from the King to him, 
in which he writ to him, that he understood, by several hands, 
that he was very much beholden to Mr. Hyde, for the 
great zeal he shewed to his service ; and therefore com- 
manded him to speak with him, and to let him know the 
sense he had of it ; and that when he returned, he would 
let him know it himself." 3 

The debates on the Grand Remonstrance, and still 
more the divisions, made it manifest that the House of 
Commons would no longer present a united front of opposi- 
tion to the Crown. Parties were becoming rapidly and 
clearly defined. Just as the " Root and Branch Bill " had 
given strength and cohesion to an Episcopalian party, so 
the Grand Remonstrance welded into a compact and homo- 
geneous whole the scattered adherents of the monarchy. 
From among the leaders of this new Royalist party the 

x Life, i., 93. 2 Forster, 193. 3 Life, i., 94. 
15 



226 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

King naturally selected his new ministers. Hyde, whose 
personal acquaintance the King had made, as we have seen, 
in the summer, was the man selected to conduct the 
negotiations. Such negotiations are always delicate, and 
in the present instance they were peculiarly difficult. It 
required all Hyde's powers of persuasion to induce Falk- 
land to accept office. Personal inclination drew the latter — 
so Clarendon affirms — rather to the side of "King" Pym 
than King Charles, for " he had great esteem for all men of 
great parts, though they applied them to ill purposes ". 

The following passage, though often quoted, gives such 
a vivid picture of Falkland's attitude at this important 
juncture that it cannot be omitted here : " The King knew 
them (Culpepper and FaTkland) to be of good esteem in the 
house, and good affections to his service, and the quiet of 
the kingdom ; and was more easily persuaded to bestow 
those preferments upon them, than the Lord Falkland was 
to accept that which was designed to him. No man could 
be more surprised than he was, when the first insinuation 
was made to him of the King's purpose : he had never 
proposed any such thing to himself, nor had any veneration 
for the court, but only such a loyalty to the person of 
the King as the law required from him. And he had 
naturally a wonderful reverence for parliaments, as believ- 
ing them most solicitous for justice, the violation whereof, 
in the least degree, he could not forgive any mortal power : 
and it was only his observation of the uningenuity and 
want of integrity in this [parliament], which lessened that 
reverence to it, and which had disposed him to cross and 
oppose their designs : he was so totally unacquainted with 
business, and the forms of it, that he did believe really 
he could not execute the office with any sufficiency. But 
there were two considerations that made most impression 
upon him ; the one, lest the world should believe, that his 



FALKLAND AS SECRETARY OF STATE 227 

own ambition had procured this promotion ; and that he 
had therefore appeared signally in the house to oppose those 
proceedings, that he might thereby render himself gracious 
to the court : the other, lest the King should expect such a 
submission, and resignation of himself, and his own reason 
and judgment, to his commands, as he should never give, 
or pretend to give ; for he was so severe an adorer of truth, 
that he could as easily have given himself leave to steal as 
to dissemble ; or to suffer any man to think that he would 
do anything, which he resolved not to do ; which he thought 
a more mischievous kind of lying, than a positive averring 
what could be most easily contradicted." x To the plea 
of inexperience Hyde rejoined that " in those parts of 
the office which required most drudgery he would help 
him the best he could and would quickly inform him of 
all the necessary forms ". But the conclusive argument 
was an appeal rather to his patriotism than to his loyalty. 
" Above all he prevailed with him, by enforcing the ill 
consequences of his refusal to take the office, which would 
be interpreted to his dislike of the court, and his opinion 
that more would be required from him than he could 
honestly comply with, which would bring great prejudice 
to the King: on the other hand, the great benefit that 
probably would redound to the King, and the kingdom, 
by his accepting such a trust in such a general defection, 
by which he would have opportunity to give the King a 
truer information of his own condition, and the state of the 
kingdom, than it might be presumed had been given to him, 
and to prevent any counsels or practice, which might more 
alienate the affections of the people from the government ; 
and then, that by this relation he would be more able to do 
the King service in the house, where he was too well known 
to have it believed, that he attained to it by any unworthy 

1 Hist., ii., 89. 



228 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

means or application. In the end," adds Clarendon, "he 
was persuaded to submit to the King's good pleasure, 
though he could not prevail upon himself to do it with so 
good a grace, as might raise in the King any notable 
expectation of his departing from the severity of his own 
nature." * 

That Falkland took up his new duties with foreboding is 
certain. He was attached to the monarchy but not to the 
King. " He had not the court in great reverence and had 
a presaging spirit that the King would fall into great mis- 
fortune : and often said to his friend that he chose to serve 
the King because honesty obliged him to it ; but that he 
foresaw his own ruin by doing it." 2 These passages afford 
ample evidence of Falkland's feelings at this important 
crisis of his life, and there is no reason to doubt the sub- 
stantial accuracy of Clarendon's recollections. No purpose 
was to be served by misrepresentation. It is therefore 
difficult to treat with patience the unsupported assertion 
of Forster that Falkland was an " easy prey to the per- 
suasive arts that seduced him to the service of the King ". 3 
He took service with unfeigned reluctance, and upon a nice 
calculation of conflicting arguments. 

Could a patriot who was attached to the monarchical 
principle and who desired the maintenance of the Church 
of England have acted otherwise at this critical juncture? 
In the few weeks which had elapsed since the acceptance 
of the Remonstrance, Pym had made it abundantly clear 
that he would stick at nothing to attain his ends. The 
attack on the Crown was to be followed by an attack on 
the House of Lords. If the peers would not move in the 
direction indicated by him, the Commons would proceed to 
the necessary work without them. Even more sinister was 

1 Hist., ii., 90. 2 Clarendon, Life, i., 104. 
3 Grand Remonstrance, 173. 



FALKLAND AS SECRETARY OF STATE 229 

his increasing reliance upon the London mob. We have 
already seen the effect of such coercion upon the bishops. 
Similar persuasion was now applied to all those who de- 
clined to accept the will of the majority in the Lower House. 
Falkland himself was among the sufferers. 1 

It is difficult to believe that under these circumstances 
the inevitable reaction could have been much longer delayed. 
But at this supreme crisis the King, by an act of incredible 
folly, played straight into the hands of Pym. 

On 3rd January, 1642, Sir Edward Herbert, the Attorney- 
General, suddenly appeared in the House of Lords to im- 
peach for high treason Lord Kimbolton, 2 and five members 
of the House of Commons, Pym, Hampden, Holies, Hasel- 
rig and Strode, the charge being that " they had traitor- 
ously conspired to levy and actually had levied war upon 
the King". Immediately afterwards the Serjeant-at-Arms 
appeared in the Commons to demand in the King's name 
the arrest of the incriminated members. The Commons 
thereupon appointed a Committee to attend his Majesty 
and to acquaint him " That this message from his Majesty 
was a matter of great consequence, that it concerneth the 
privilege of Parliament . . . that this House will take it 

1 Mr. Macray prints in his edition of Clarendon the following interesting 
passage which is erased in the MS. See Clarendon (ed. Macray, iv., 129) : — 

"... treating likewise some members of the House of Commons very 
rudely, as they passed upon messages and conferences between the two 
Houses, when they used those of the members who were grateful to them 
with great respect and observance. And those with whom they were dis- 
pleased, when they could sever them from the rest, they crowded, and pressed, 
and trod upon ; and had several papers in their hands, which they read with 
a loud voice, standing upon the table and in other places of the Court of. 
Request, in which they read the names of several persons under the style of 
' Persons disaffected to the Kingdom,' amongst which Sir John Strangevvays 
was first and Mr. Hyde was the second, and then the Lord Falkland and 
Sir John Culpeper ; and the rest who were most troublesome to them were 
likewise nominated." 

2 Afterwards Ear! of Manchester. 



230 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

into serious consideration . . . and in the meantime the said 
members shall be ready to answer any legal charge laid 
against them ". It is worthy of note that Culpepper and 
Falkland — the recently appointed ministers — were two of 
the four members thus appointed to wait upon the King. 

On the following day (Tuesday, 4th January) " the Lord 
Falkland reported the King's answer to the message of this 
House delivered the last night to his Majesty, that his 
Majesty asked them, whether the House did expect an 
Answer ? They replied, they had no more in Commission to 
say, but only to deliver the message : the King asked them 
as private Persons, what they thought of it ? They said, they 
conceived the House did expect an answer ; but his Majesty 
was informed the House was up, so he said he would send 
an Answer this morning, as soon as this House was set; 
but in the mean time he commanded them to acquaint the 
House, that the Serjeant at Arms did nothing but what he 
had directions from himself to do." 1 The five members 
were all present : but later in the day news reached the 
House, through the perfidy of Lady Carlisle, that the King 
was coming in person to arrest them. The members were 
bidden to withdraw. The King arrived with an armed 
force, passed through the lobby and entered the House. 
The scene that followed is thus quaintly described by an 
eye-witness, Verney: "Then the kinge steped upp to his 
place and stood uppon the stepp, but sate not doun in 
the chaire. And, after hee had looked a greate while, 
hee told us, hee would not breake our priviledges, but 
treason had noe priviledge ; hee came for those five gentle- 
men, for hee expected obedience yeasterday, and not an 
answere. Then hee calld Mr. Pirn, and Mr. Hollis, by 
name, but noe answere was made. Then hee asked the 
Speaker if they were heere, or where they were. Uppon 
1 Nalson, ii., 816. 



FALKLAND AS SECRETARY OF STATE 231 

that the Speaker fell on his knees, and desierd his excuse, 
for hee was a servant to the House, and had neither eyes, 
nor tongue, to see or say anything but what they commanded 
him. Then the king told him, hee thought his owne eyes 
were as good as his, and then said his birds were flowen, but 
hee did expect the House should send them to him, and if 
they did not hee would seeke them himselfe, for there 
treason was foule, and such an on as they would all thanke 
him to discover. Then hee assured us they should have a 
fair triall, and soe went out, putting off his hat till hee came 
to the dore. " 1 

Baffled at Westminster the King sought the fugitives in 
the city ; but the Common Council was as firm as Parlia- 
ment. Meanwhile a Committee of twenty-four members 
was appointed by the Commons to sit at the Guildhall. It is 
significant of their relations to the House that of this Com- 
mittee also Falkland and Culpepper were members. London 
was strongly moved by the attack on Parliament. The city 
trained-bands were called out : Skippon was appointed to 
the command : the seamen in the Thames volunteered for 
the defence of Parliament. Even Charles felt that in Lon- 
don the game was up ; on 10th January he and the Queen 
left Whitehall; on the nth the impeached members re- 
turned in triumph to Westminster. 

The incident has been endlessly discussed, and in par- 
ticular many words have been wasted in demonstrating the 
unconstitutional character of the King's proceedings. Such 
demonstration would seem to be entirely beside the point. 
The King's action was of course, from first to last, hopelessly 
irregular ; but who among the supporters of the Grand Re- 
monstrance could afford to cast the first stone ? The King's 
real crime was not the attempt but the failure. Nothing could 
justify such outrageous conduct except complete success. 

1 Verney, 139. 



232 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

A wise man, or even a clever man, would have left nothing 
to chance in an enterprise on the success of which everything 
depended. Charles, hesitating to the last, uncertain whether 
to proceed by quasi-legal methods or to employ force, left 
everything to chance. Why, if an arrest was intended, it 
was not quietly effected without the gratuitous violation of 
Parliamentary privileges must for ever remain a mystery. 
Perhaps the King's precipitate haste was simply due to the 
fatuous instigation of the Queen. Perhaps it was due to 
the folly of Digby "thinking difficult things too easy". It 
is impossible definitely to say. But out of a maze of un- 
certainties one or two certainties emerge. First : it is certain 
that no atom of responsibility can attach to the recently 
appointed Secretary of State. Forster * indeed, though he 
dare not accuse him will not acquit him ; but, the action of the 
House in naming Falkland to be a member of the Committee 
at the Guildhall is conclusive proof that not even his op- 
ponents imputed complicity to him. Clarendon speaks of 
the " discouragement they had so lately received in the 
King's going to the house to demand the five members, 
without ever communicating his intention to them, and 
which had made a deep impression upon them". 2 A 
modern Secretary of State would, of course, under similar 
circumstances have tendered his resignation at once. Danby, 
under circumstances exactly parallel, was impeached. But 
between 1642 and 1679 the doctrine of ministerial responsi- 
bility had obtained larger acceptance. Falkland may well 
have despaired of the cause which he had espoused, and of 
the master whom he had undertaken to serve, but he did not 
feel justified in deserting him because he had been guilty of 
criminal folly. 

A second point emerges with equal clearness. The 
King's action " much advanced the spirits of the dis- 

1 Five Members, n. 2 Life, i., 102. 




EDWARD HYDE, EARL OF CLARENDON 

AFTER THE PICTURE BY SIR PETER I.ELV 



FALKLAND AS SECRETARY OF STATE 233 

affected " and correspondingly depressed those of his well- 
wishers. It was indeed fatal to the cause of peace. Lord 
Macaulay speaks of the attempt as " undoubtedly the real 
cause of the war". But to ascribe the civil war to any 
single cause, most of all to ascribe it to a single incident is 
curiously unphilosophical. Forster 1 is substantially in accord 
with Macaulay. With more accuracy Clarendon speaks of 
it as " the most visible introduction to all the misery that 
afterwards befell the King and kingdom ". The " visible 
introduction " it was ; but not the cause. 

But while Clarendon, the historian, must necessarily 
condemn, Hyde, the confidential counsellor, was faithful to 
his trust. Before leaving Whitehall the King renewed his 
commands to Falkland, Culpepper and Hyde " to meet con- 
stantly together and consult upon his affairs, and conduct 
them the best way they could in the Parliament, and to give 
him constant advice what he was to do, without which, he 
declared again very solemnly, he would make no step in the 
Parliament. Two of them were obliged by their offices and 
relations, and the other by his duty and inclination, to give 
him all satisfaction." 2 The following passage in Claren- 
don's autobiography throws additional and interesting light 
alike upon the political organisation of the day, and upon 
the mutual relations of the three principal advisers of the 
unhappy King : " They met every night late together, and 
communicated their observations and intelligence of the day ; 
and so agreed what was to be done or attempted the next ; 
there being very many persons of condition and interest in 
the house who would follow their advice, and assist in any- 
thing they desired. And because Mr. Hyde had larger 
accommodation in the house where he lived in Westminster 
than either of the other had, the meetings at night were for 
the most part with him ; and after their deliberation together, 

1 Five Members, 184-200. *Life, i., 102. 



234 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

what was to be put in writing was always committed to Mr. 
Hyde ; and when the King had left the town, he writ as 
freely to the King as either of the other did ; and. some- 
times, when they would be excused he went to him in great 
secret." 1 

The meetings at Hyde's house naturally became known, 
and still further increased the suspicions of the popular 
leaders already incensed against him for " disposing the 
Lord Falkland to serve the court and the court to receive 
his service". When they discovered that "a Secretary of 
State and a Chancellor of the Exchequer went every day to 
the lodging of a private person, they believed it a con- 
descension that had some other foundation than mere 
civility ; yet they could not discover anything against 
them which they thought fit to offer in public ", 2 Claren- 
don is at pains to make it clear that while his friendship 
with Falkland was " most entire," their common association 
with Sir John Culpepper was purely official, " their natures 
being in nothing like ". None the less, despite important 
differences in point of view (on the Church question for 
example), despite also occasional roughnesses of temper, 
the combination was singularly successful. " When any 
advice," says Clarendon, " was given by either of the other, 
the King usually asked 'whether Ned Hyde were of that 
opinion,' and they always very ingenuously confessed that 
he was not : but his having no relation of service, and so 
no pretence to be seen often at court, and the great 
jealousy that was entertained towards him, made it neces- 
sary to him to repair only in the dark to the King upon 
emergent occasions, and leave the rest to be imparted by 
the other two : and the differences in their natures and 
opinions never produced any disunion between them in 
those councils which concerned the conduct of the King's 

1 i., 102. 2 Life, i., 104. 



FALKLAND AS SECRETARY OF STATE 235 

service, but they proceeded with great unanimity, and very 
manifestly much advanced the King's business from the 
very low state it was in when they were first trusted ; the 
other two having always much deference to the Lord 
Falkland, who allayed their passions, to which they were 
both enough inclined." 1 

Falkland's moderating influence was doubtless invalu- 
able : his Parliamentary position was strong, and his temper 
was admirable. But Hyde was the draughtsman of the 
little cabinet. Before the King finally left London for the 
North, he had a consultation with Hyde at Greenwich, and 
required him to " advertise him of such matters as were fit 
for him to know ; and to prepare and send him answers to 
such declarations or messages as the parliament should 
send to him ". To avoid suspicion or danger to Hyde, 
the King promised to copy all the answers in his own 
hand and burn the originals. This he invariably did, 
" which sometimes took him up two or three days and a 
good part of the night ". 

The nature of the advice thus tendered to the King by 
his sagacious and devoted servant the following chapter 
will disclose. 

x Life, i., in. 



CHAPTER VI 

ON THE EVE OF WAR 

THE Grand Remonstrance was, in effect, a declaration 
of war. The attempted arrest of the five members 
was the King's mismanaged and ineffectual rejoinder. Falk- 
land, a genuine lover of peace, strongly opposed the first, and 
bitterly lamented the second. But despite provocations on 
both sides he stuck loyally to his post, and, for the next few 
months, did all that in him lay to postpone, and if possible 
avert, the all but inevitable appeal to arms. 

Meanwhile, Parliament flinging aside all constitutional 
restraint set itself to raise an armed force. Apart from 
ultimate possibilities two immediate necessities might be 
held to justify such action. Parliamentary privileges had to 
be protected from armed invasion, and the Irish Protestants 
to be rescued from Catholic violence. But it is character- 
istic of the situation that debate on constitutional aspects 
of the " Militia " question proceeded simultaneously with 
decisive action on the part of both combatants. On 17th 
December a Militia Bill had been introduced into the House 
of Commons, and before the end of the month had passed its 
second reading. It is justly described by Gardiner as a 
" root and branch Bill to regulate the army ". Had it be- 
come law the King's command over the armed forces of the 
realm would have been transferred to Parliament. And it 
was on this issue that the rupture finally took place. It was 

236 



ON THE EVE OF WAR 237 

one on which neither side could give way. Anxious as the 
English Puritans were to send to the relief of their co-re- 
ligionists in Ireland, they were not prepared to place in 
the King's hands a powerful engine to be used against 
themselves. The King, professing equal solicitude for his 
Irish subjects, was not disposed to part with a power which 
alike by law and constitutional convention was indisput- 
ably his own. On the other outstanding question — the 
exclusion of the bishops from the House of Lords — the 
King, as we have seen, gave way. On the militia question 
no compromise was possible. Meanwhile, pending a legis- 
lative decision, Parliament hastened to usurp a power which 
they could not legally obtain. The London trained-bands 
had been already called out and placed under the command 
of Major-General Skippon, a stout soldier well affected to 
Parliament. Towards the end of January the Commons 
demanded that the fortresses and militia should be placed in 
the hands of persons in whom Parliament could confide. 
The Lords refused to join in the demand, and the King 
returned an evasive answer which was formally voted to be 
a denial. On this the Commons produced the " Militia Or- 
dinance," conferring power upon persons to be subsequently 
named to train the inhabitants in each county for war. To 
this " Ordinance " the King's final answer was a proclamation 
that no one should presume " upon any pretence of order or 
ordinance to which his Majesty was no party concerning the 
militia or any other thing to do or execute what was not 
warrantable " by the laws. On the receipt of this answer 
Parliament in " choler and rage " took the matter into their 
own hands. Hull — the most important arsenal, and per- 
haps the most important seaport in the kingdom — had been 
already secured by the Hothams despite the King's efforts 
to anticipate them. On 23rd April Charles in vain de- 
manded admission " to view his magazines ". Newcastle 



238 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

was occupied by its Earl in the King's interest (17th June), 
but only just in time. Portsmouth was held for him by the 
double-traitor, Goring. But Newcastle and Portsmouth 
were of little value without a fleet, and on 2nd July the 
fleet accepted the command of Warwick, and Warwick 
secured its allegiance to the Parliament. 

"This loss of the whole Navy" was, as Clarendon justly 
observes, " of unspeakable ill consequence to the King's 
affairs." The influence of sea-power upon the progress and 
ultimate issue of the English civil war has been curiously 
neglected by most historians. Clarendon's strong hint might 
have been expected to stimulate curiosity in this direction, 
but it has signally failed to do so. Yet it is not too much 
to assert that the strategy of the struggle was largely deter- 
mined by the fact that Parliament had command of the sea, 
and were thus able to sustain the resistance of Gloucester, 
Plymouth and Hull — three ports in the heart of Royalist 
country, and vitally important to the prosecution of the 
King's plan. The whole subject is well worthy of detailed 
investigation, but it cannot be pursued here. 

Notwithstanding overt acts of war, negotiations between 
King and Parliament were continued until the middle of 
July. From the time, however, when the King left London 
there was little hope of an amicable issue. February was 
spent mostly at Theobalds; on the 25th the King got 
the Queen safely away to Holland with the Crown jewels, 
and on 3rd March, against the wish of both Houses, he him- 
self set out for the North. On the 19th he rode into York 
which became for the next few months the headquarters 
of the Royalist party. 

Falkland, Culpepper and Hyde remained behind to 
watch over the King's interests at Westminster, not without 
peril to themselves. Soon after the King's departure 
Culpepper, almost as well served in the matter of spies 



ON THE EVE OF WAR 239 

as Pym himself, brought news to his colleagues that there 
was a design on foot to commit them all to the Tower. It 
had been agreed apparently that somebody was to move 
the House "that they would apply themselves to make some 
strict enquiry after the persons who were most like to give 
the King the evil counsel he had lately followed and who 
prepared those answers and messages they received from 
his Majesty". The three ministers were then to be named 
and committed to the Tower. Culpepper's information frus- 
trated the plan, and the friends agreed that henceforward 
they would never all be together at the House and " seldom 
two of them," and would, to avoid an excuse for the enemies, 
intervene as little as possible in debate. 

The delicate position of the members of this embryo 
cabinet, and the suspicions with which they were beginning 
to be regarded in the House, may be judged from the follow- 
ing letter written by Falkland to Hyde on 23rd March. It 
is worth quoting alike in illustration of Falkland's familiar 
epistolary style and of his relations with his friend : — 

"Dear Sweetheart, 

" The Lords sent to us to-day to desire that we would 
make haste to proceed with the charges of my Lord of 
Canterbury, and the other delinquents accused before them. 
Among the rest, the judges were named, in particular Judge 
Berkley ; and Mr. Peard then named you, as having been 
in that chair, and so fitted to attend that business, both to 
inform us, and be employed by us. He added, that he 
doubted not you were very perfect in it ; for though you 
were sometimes at a committee in the morning, yet the 
afternoons he supposed you spent about that, because you 
were never in the House. To this I replied, that in the 
charge against Judge Berkley (which was to precede the 
rest, because he stands committed, and none of the rest, and 



240 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

the Lords had once set him a day for his trial and we had 
deferred it) you were not engaged by the House, but re- 
served for those judges whose charge you had yourself 
carried up. I told them that you had, this good while, 
great inclinations to the stone, so that, if you sat above 
an hour or two at a time, it put you to much pain, which 
had made you attend the House so seldom, and yet allowed 
you to be at a committee sometimes, which sits but a little 
at a time, and which had carried you now for a time into 
the country, to try how air and riding would mend you. 
Mr. Hunt replied that, having been in that chair, you would 
be necessary as well to Judge Berkley's business as to that 
of the Chequer Judges; and Mr. Morley fell again upon 
you for not waiting upon the House, and yet attending the 
Dover Committee so duly ; and said the House was not to 
take notice of any man's being out of town who had not 
leave to go, and so moved (which was ordered accordingly) 
that the House should order you to attend to-morrow 
morning. I thought fit to let you know it, that you may 
rise at three of the clock to-morrow and be here time enough 
if you please. You know I never take it upon me to 
counsel, nor will add any more than that I am, 
" Sweetheart, y r most affec 1 humble servant, 

" Falkland. 

" March 23, 164^. — The House sits more early in the 
morning to-morrow, and no more in the afternoon." 

Such was the precarious position of Falkland and his 
friends in London. The King, on the other hand, safe for 
the time at York, deemed it a convenient opportunity to in- 
flict a petty personal slight upon two of his household officers 
against whom the Queen had conceived a bitter prejudice. 
Lord Essex was Chamberlain and Lord Holland Groom of 
the Stole ; and, despite the urgent entreaties of " the persons 



ON THE EVE OF WAR 241 

trusted by his Majesty," Lord-Keeper Littleton was ordered 
" to require the staff and key from the one and the other ". 
Littleton's courage failed him, and he begged Falkland to 
make his excuses to the King. Thereupon the King wrote, 
" all in his own hand," to the Secretary, commanding him 
" to require the surrender of the ensigns of their offices 
from those two Earls ". Falkland liked the job as little as 
Littleton, thinking it more proper to " a gentleman usher " 
than a Secretary of State. He would not, however, disobey 
the King, and being on friendly terms with both Essex and 
Holland he carried out his master's orders with all the tact 
and consideration possible under the disagreeable circum- 
stances. The incident was at once reported to the House 
of Lords : both Houses " took notice of it with passion," 
and immediately passed a vote " that whosoever presumed 
to accept of either of those offices should be reputed an 
enemy to his country ". Holland's enmity was of small 
moment, but Clarendon bitterly laments, not for the first 
time, the King's folly in alienating Essex without whom "it 
had been utterly impossible for Parliament to have raised 
an army then ". Unfortunately, it was not the last occasion 
on which the King choose rather to gratify the violent 
passions of the Queen than defer to the wise counsels of 
his friends. 

His own inclination was to treat the Lord-Keeper Little- 
ton as he had treated Essex and Holland, and to offer his 
place to Selden or Bankes ; but in this case the advice of 
Falkland and Hyde was allowed to prevail, and Littleton, to 
the consternation and confusion of Parliament, carried off the 
Great Seal to York. Many of the King's supporters in both 
Houses were now making their way to the North. Their 
departure rendered still more difficult the position of those 
who remained at Westminster. Hyde in particular was an 
object of suspicion ; the King badly wanted him at York, 

16 



242 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

and towards the end of May he left London for Sir Henry 
Lee's seat at Ditchley, there to await further news from 
Falkland. Falkland learnt from his friend Dr. Morley that 
it was intended to accuse Hyde of high treason and bade 
him make all speed to York. With Chillingworth's help he 
got safely as far as Nostall, and ultimately joined the Court 
at York, there to resume his secretarial work for the King. 

The King, meanwhile, had issued orders for the Courts 
of Law and the two Houses to adjourn to York. Parlia- 
ment intervened to prevent obedience to the former order, 
but day by day, despite efforts to restrain them, its own 
members slipped away. Ultimately not more than thirty 
peers and three hundred commoners were left at Westmin- 
ster, a large majority of the Upper House and a considerable 
minority of the Lower having thrown in their lot with the 
King. 1 Falkland and Culpepper joined the Court early in 
June, having stayed in London until the last moment in 
order to draft the answer to the Nineteen Propositions. 
The latter document was approved in Parliament on ist 
June. 

During the last months before the actual outbreak of 
the war the air was positively laden with Remonstrances, 
Petitions, Counter-petitions, Proposals and Counter-pro- 
posals. Many of these may be read at length in Clarendon, 
who was largely responsible for the papers which emanated 
from York. In all these it was his supreme object to 
exhibit the King as the champion of law against the assaults 
of lawless innovators. "The King's resolution was," he 
writes, " to shelter himself wholly under the law ; to grant 
anything that by the law he was obliged to grant ; and to 
deny what by law was in his own power, and which he found 
inconvenient to consent to." " I speak knowingly," he adds 
with truth. But though the documents are voluminous, 

1 Firth, Cromwell, p. 6g. 



ON THE EVE OF WAR 243 

the points really at issue were comparatively few. The 
approval of ministers and councillors by Parliament ; similar 
approval of the governors and tutors of the Royal children, 
and of their marriages ; the execution of the laws against 
Jesuits and Popish recusants ; the reformation of Church 
government and liturgy as Parliament shall advise after 
consultation with divines ; and the settlement of the militia 
on the lines of the ordinance: — these were the more promi- 
nent requirements of the Nineteen Propositions. With the 
exception of the first two they reappear in most of the sub- 
sequent negotiations. 

The drafting of the King's reply led to one of the few 
differences between Falkland and Hyde. The latter took 
exception — very properly — to the description of the King 
and two Houses as the three Estates — a description which 
was constitutionally inaccurate and which ignored the 
bishops. Falkland retorted that Hyde " disliked it, because 
he had not writ it himself". The breeze soon passed ; 
Falkland acknowledged " his own inadvertency," and the 
amended answer was delivered to Parliament before the end 
of June. Parliament had demanded nothing less than a 
transference of sovereignty to itself. " To grant their de- 
mands was in effect," as the King truly said, " at once to de- 
pose himself and his posterity ". 

But in truth the time for argument had gone by. The 
two parties had reached a position from which neither could 
recede. The one struggled to obtain, the other to retain 
the essence of sovereignty. Negotiations were drawn out 
mainly for the purpose of informing the minds and enlisting 
the sympathies of the nation to which both sides were now 
compelled to appeal. 

On nth June the King issued his Commissions of Array ; 
on the 13th he announced that he would not engage his 
supporters in any war against Parliament " except it were 



244 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

for his necessary defence and safety against such as did 
insolently invade or attempt against his Majesty". To 
this appeal Falkland and the peers at York responded with 
a promise to stand by the King's prerogative, and on 15th 
June the peers joined the King in a solemn declaration that 
they desired only " the law, peace, and prosperity of this 
kingdom". Falkland, Culpepper, Lord-Keeper Littleton, 
Chief Justice Bankes and thirty-four peers were among the 
signatories. If the King and Court desired peace, so did 
the country at large. Petitions praying for an accommoda- 
tion poured into York from all parts of the country. Falk- 
land's answers to the petitions are models of dignity and 
sober eloquence, and testify, as far as words can testify, to 
the King's earnest desire " that all hostility may cease, cease 
forever, and a blessed and happy accommodation and peace 
be made ; that God's honour and the Protestant religion 
may be maintained ; that the just privileges of Parliament 
and the laws of the land may be upheld and put in exe- 
cution that so his good people may be freed from their fears, 
and secured in their estates ". 1 

But the sands were running out. On 4th July the 
Houses named a Committee of Safety; on the 6th they 
ordered a special army of 10,000 men to be raised, and on 
the 1 2th they appointed Essex to command it. 

The King's friends were chafing at the delay in raising 
his standard. But it was not easy to decide where it should 
be set up. The Derby family desired to secure the honour 
for Lancashire and promised strong support : York was 
considered, but was less eager for the distinction ; on 12th 
August the King summoned his loyal subjects to rally 
round the standard at Nottingham, and there on the 22nd 
it was set up. 

Falkland's answers to the petitions from Hertford, Cumberland and 
Westmoreland and Flint may be read in full in Lady T. Lewis, Appendix N. 




£<Z?^ y y °f/y~* ■ <£i 



AFTER A PORTRAIT BY VANUYK 



ON THE EVE OF WAR 245 

On the eve of the war it is desirable to pause a while 
and attempt to gauge the state of public feeling, and estimate 
the forces which were at work to dispose the plain citizen to 
this side or that. 

One thing is abundantly and honourably clear, that the 
aversion to the idea of war was deep and general, and that 
out-and-out partisans on either side were few. Round the 
King was a small and devoted band of people who had 
adopted in its integrity the Stuart theory of monarchy. 
They held with Charles himself — 

Not all the water in the rough rude sea 
Can wash the balm from an anointed King ; 
The breath of worldly men cannot depose 
The deputy elected by the Lord. 

On the other side there were some who could re-echo the 
splendid confidence of that stout-hearted but rather stupid 
republican, Edmund Ludlow: "The question in dispute 
between the King's Party and us being, as I apprehended, 
whether the King should govern as a God by his Will, and 
the Nation be governed by force like Beasts ; or whether 
the People should be governed by Laws made by them- 
selves, and live under a Government derived from their own 
consent. Being fully persuaded that an accommodation 
with the King was unsafe to the people of England, and 
unjust and wicked in the nature of it. The former, besides 
that it was obvious to all men, the King himself had proved 
by the duplicity of his dealing with the Parliaments, which 
manifestly appeared in his own papers, taken at the battle 
of Naseby and elsewhere, of the latter I was convinced by 
the express words of God's law : ' that blood defileth the 
land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is 
shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it ' (Num- 
bers, c. xxxv., v. 33). And therefore 1 could not consent 
to leave the guilt of so much blood on the nation, and 



246 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

thereby to draw down the just vengeance of God upon us 
all, when it was most evident that the war had been 
occasioned by the invasion of our rights and open breach 
of our laws and constitution on the King's part." 1 

But unhesitating, convinced and thorough-going parti- 
sans like Ludlow were few ; the vast majority of citizens 
were distracted as to the choice of sides, and detested the 
idea of civil war. A conversation reported by Clarendon 
gives us an insight into the feelings of one such citizen, 
Sir Edmund Verney, the King's standard bearer, "a man 
of great courage and generally beloved ". He came to 
Hyde one day and said " he was very glad to see him 
in so universal a damp, under which the spirits of most 
men were oppressed, retain still his natural vivacity and 
cheerfulness. My condition," he continued, " is much worse 
than yours . . . and will very well justify the melancholie 
that I confess possesses me. You have satisfaction in your 
conscience that you are in the right, that the King ought 
not to grant what is required of him ; and so you do 
your duty and business together. But, for my part, I do not 
like the quarrel, and do heartily wish that the King would 
yield, and consent to what they desire, so that my conscience 
is only concerned in honour and gratitude to follow my 
master. I have eaten his bread and served him near 
thirty years, and will not do so base a thing as to forsake 
him, and choose rather to loose my life (which I am sure I 
shall do) to preserve and defend those things which are 
against my conscience to preserve and defend ; for I will 
deal freely with you — I have no reverence for bishops, for 
whom this quarrel submits." Sir Edmund Verney, it can- 
not be doubted, spoke the thoughts of thousands of those 
who took service under the banner of the King. There was 
just the same temper on the other side. Sir William Waller 

1 Memoirs, i., 267. 



ON THE EVE OF WAR 247 

writes thus to his friend Ralph Hopton : " The great God 
who is the searcher of my heart, knows with what reluctance 
I go upon this service and with what perfect hatred I look 
upon a war without an enemy. The God of Peace in His 
good time send us peace, and in the meantime fit us to re- 
ceive it. We are both on the stage, and we must act the 
parts that are assigned to us in this tragedy. Let us do 
it in the way of honour and without personal animosities." 
Such was the honourable temper of both sides as they em- 
barked on this great contest. And who will deny that 
there was ground for hesitation ? " There was," as the judicial 
Hallam says, " so much in the conduct and circumstances of 
both parties to excite disapprobation and distrust that a wise 
and good man could hardly unite cordially with either. On 
the one hand he would entertain little doubt of the King's 
desire to overthrow by force or stratagem whatever had 
been effected in Parliament, and to establish a plenary 
despotism ; his arbitrary temper, his known principles of 
government, the natural sense of wounded pride and honour, 
the instigations of a haughty woman, the solicitations of 
favourites, the promises of ambitious men, were all at work 
to render his position as a constitutional sovereign, even 
if unaccompanied by fresh indignities and reproaches, too 
grievous and mortifying to be endured. . . . But on the 
other hand the House of Commons presented still less 
favourable prospects. . . . After every allowance has been 
made he must bring very heated passions to the records of 
those times, who does not perceive in the conduct of that 
body a series of glaring violations not only of positive and 
constitutional, but of those higher principles which are para- 
mount to all immediate policy." 1 

A further question demands an answer. 

Is it possible to draw any broad lines of division between 

1 C. H. t ii., 139, 140. 



248 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

the two parties ? " Saints and Sinners " is the natural 
suggestion of the keen partisan : but there is a good deal of 
contemporary opinion to contradict it. " Think not," said 
Thomas Fuller preaching in London, " that the King's army 
is like Sodom, not ten righteous men in it, and the other army 
like Zion, consisting all of saints." An echo comes from 
Chillingworth, preaching before the Court at Oxford. " Pub- 
licans and Sinners on the one side, against Scribes and 
Pharisees on the other ; on the one side hypocrisy, on the 
other profaneness. No honesty or justice on the one side, 
and very little piety on the other. On the one side horrible 
oaths, curses and blasphemies, on the other pestilent lies 
calumnies and perjuries. ... I profess that I cannot with- 
out trembling consider what is likely to be the event of these 
distractions." 

Fuller and Chillingworth were surely right. Neither 
side had a monopoly of morals — good or bad. But though 
morally the line of division is happily blurred, ecclesiastically 
it is clearly defined. On the side of King Charles all the 
Romans and Anglicans ; on that of " King Pym " all the 
many varieties of Puritanism. But even on the ecclesiastical 
stage there was a large middle party of which Falkland was 
typical — anti-Laudian but not anti-Episcopal, a party which 
had " contracted some prejudice to the archbishop," but 
which liked still less the prospect of Genevan domination. 

Geographically, parties were roughly divided by the line 
that has been an immemorial dividing-line in English 
history — the line from the Humber to the Severn — or per- 
haps more accurately from the Humber to Southampton. 
The strength of the King lay in the comparatively wild 
districts to the north and west of the line, where great 
lords like Newcastle, Derby and Worcester still ruled in 
semi-feudal state. To the Parliament adhered the rich and 
comparatively civilised districts of the east and south. 



ON THE EVE OF WAR 249 

The great agricultural plain contained at that day almost 
the whole wealth of England. London was at least as 
pre-eminent among the towns as it is to-day. Exception- 
ally bitter in its Puritanism, and containing not less than a 
tenth of the whole population, its support was a tower of 
strength to the Parliamentary party. Bristol and Norwich, 
the only considerable towns outside London, were both 
Parliamentarian, though Bristol fell before the intrepid at- 
tack of Rupert. Hull, Plymouth and Gloucester were 
secured to Parliament, by the adhesion of the fleet, and no 
words can exaggerate the advantage they thus obtained. 
The industrial towns in the west and south-west not less 
than in the south-east were at the opening of the struggle 
on the same side; but they were unable to resist the 
pressure of the surrounding country. Wales, with the 
exception of Pembroke, was solidly Royalist from the first, 
as were the four Northern Counties. 

Socially, the line is, fortunately, less easy to draw. The 
Civil War was a war of creeds and parties ; it was not a 
war of classes. The townsmen were generally on the side 
of Parliament ; the great lords and their retainers fought 
mostly for the King ; but the Puritan trained-bands were 
officered by squires, and many a stout yeoman rode with 
Rupert. Pym could count on thirty peers, and Charles on 
nearly two hundred members of the Lower House. There 
was, therefore, no question of property at issue. Later on 
the Levellers developed socialistic opinions, but they got no 
countenance from the responsible leaders. 

Politically, the line must be drawn at the divisions on 
the Grand Remonstrance. How close they were we have 
already seen, and that they reflected with substantial ac- 
curacy the balance of parties in the country we cannot 
doubt. 

But though we may thus discriminate between Cavaliers 



250 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

and Roundheads, it still remains true that the mass of the 
nation were neither one nor the other. Many of the counties 
would gladly have followed Yorkshire in an attempt to 
contract themselves out of the war, and the peasants of 
Dorset and Wilts — subsequently organised as The Clubmen 
— represented, in their anxiety to keep both parties at arm's 
length, the feelings of most of their class. "The number of 
those who desired to sit still was greater," as Clarendon 
pithily observes, " than of those who desired to engage in 
either party." 

Falkland's courageous and impetuous nature forbade 
him to sit still, but from the outset of the war his one 
absorbing thought, his one passionate desire was peace. 



BOOK IV 
CHAPTER I 

THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

TT is no part of the duty of Falkland's biographer to 
■*- tell again the story of the Civil War, nor even of the 
two campaigns which were all that Falkland lived to witness. 
But it is much to the purpose to record his untiring efforts 
even at this most unpromising juncture, first to maintain, 
and later to restore, peace. 

On 9th August, 1642, the King issued a proclamation 
declaring Essex and his officers traitors, but offering free 
pardon to him and to all who within six days should lay 
down their arms. The Commons issued a counter declara- 
tion and swore to live and die with the general. On the 
1 8th the Houses issued in their turn a proclamation de- 
nouncing as traitors all those who in arms supported the 
King, and four days later the King's standard was raised 
at Nottingham. The immediate response to the King's 
appeal was meagre in the extreme. But for weeks Essex 
made no move. " God blinded his enemies so that they 
made not the least advance towards Nottingham," says 
Clarendon. The fact probably was that Essex, like most 
of his contemporaries — including Hyde himself — imagined 
that one blow would end the war, and he was in no hurry 
to strike it. Meanwhile, the King was persuaded, much 

251 



252 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

against his will, to renew his offer of peace, and on 25th 
August the Earls of Southampton and Dorset were sent 
off to Westminster with Culpepper and Sir William Udall 
as the bearers of the King's message to Parliament. It 
was received, as the King had anticipated, " with unheard of 
insolence and contempt," Parliament refusing to consider 
it until the King hauled down his standard and withdrew 
his proclamation against Parliament and its adherents. 

Still Falkland did not abandon his efforts, and privately 
urged the King to make one last appeal to Parliament in 
person. That could not be ; but Falkland was permitted 
to be the bearer of yet another message, which he de- 
livered on 5th September. It was entirely conciliatory in 
tone, and its passionate professions in favour of peace 
suggest the probability that the most peace-loving of the 
King's ministers was not merely the bearer but the author 
of the message. The King undertook "if a day were 
appointed by Parliament for the revoking of their declara- 
tion with all cheerfulness" to recall his proclamation and 
take down his standard. According to D'Ewes, Falkland 
was further charged with a secret message to the Parlia- 
mentary leaders that the King would consent to a thorough 
reformation in religion as well as to anything else they 
could reasonably desire. 1 Parliament, however, refused to 
treat unless the King would unconditionally haul down his 
flag, abandon his friends, put his person at the disposal of 
Parliament and agree to abide by their advice. As for the 
peacemaker, the House of Commons resolved (22nd Sep- 
tember, 1642) "that the Lord Viscount Falkland shall be 
disabled for continuing any longer a member of this House 
during this Parliament." 2 

Further negotiation was futile. Nothing but the sword 
could now determine the issue. Essex was at last moved 

ig.(c. w.),l, 17- °-c. y., 777- 



THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 253 

to take the field. On 10th September he joined his army, 
20,000 strong, at Northampton. Three days later the King 
set forth from Nottingham to seek in Shropshire and 
Cheshire a recruiting ground less barren than the Midlands. 
The Welsh marchers responded nobly to his appeal, both 
for money and men, and within a few weeks he found 
himself at the head of a force respectable in numbers 
though sadly lacking in discipline, in ammunition, and in 
arms. 

Before leaving Nottingham, " as a farewell to his hopes 
of a treaty, and to make the deeper sense and impression 
in the hearts of the people," the King had published in 
the form of a message to Parliament an admirably conceived 
manifesto to the nation. No one can be insensible to the 
pathos of its concluding words : " The God of heaven direct 
you, and in mercy divert those judgments which hang over 
this nation : and so deal with us and our posterity as we 
desire the preservation and advancement of the true pro- 
testant religion ; the law and the liberty of the subject ; 
the just rights of Parliament, and the peace of the kingdom ". 
In this, as in the other proclamations of this time, the hand 
of the Secretary of State is manifest. 

On the march to Chester the King learnt that Worcester 
was threatened by Essex. Orders were accordingly sent 
to Prince Rupert, then at Bridgenorth, to march to the sup- 
port of Sir John Byron who had with great difficulty 
managed to convey to Worcester a considerable sum of 
money raised by the King's friends in London. Rupert 
reached Worcester on 23rd September ; Fiennes, in com- 
mand of Essex's advance guard, was at Pershore ; and at 
Powick Bridge, just outside Worcester, the first important 
skirmish of the war took place. Sandys was at the head of 
a thousand men, the flower of the Roundhead cavalry, but 
Rupert's charge was irresistible, and the Roundheads broke 



254 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

and fled, leaving, according to Falkland, 400 l out of their 
thousand dead upon the field. Rupert had drawn first blood. 
" This rencounter proved of unspeakable advantage and 
benefit to the King . . . and rendered the name of Prince 
Rupert very terrible and exceedingly appalled the enemy." 
The losses among his own men were insignificant, but de- 
spite his dashing and effective charge Rupert was not strong 
enough to hold Worcester, and on the 24th the city was 
occupied by Essex without resistance. 

A few days later Falkland, who was in attendance upon 
the King at Shrewsbury, addressed to Lord Cumberland 
the following letter. Brief references to this remarkably 
interesting letter may be found in Eliot Warburton's Memoirs 
of Prince Rupert, and in Gardiner, 2 but I am not aware that 
it has ever been reprinted since it was first issued in pamphlet 
form in 1642. This fact, combined with its intrinsic import- 
ance, may be held to justify citation in extenso. 

" A letter sent from the Lord Falkland, Principal Secre- 
tarie to his Majestie, 

" Unto the Right Honourable, Henry Earle of Cumber- 
land at York, 

" Concerning the late Conflict before Worcester, with the 
State of his Majesties Armie now at Shrewsbury. 

" My Lord, 

" I know ere this time you have divers and 
severall relations of Prince Robert's encounter with the 
Earle of Essex forces before Worcester, the 23 of Septem- 
ber. I could have written sooner, but stayed till I could 
have an exact Relation, which I now doe from men of 
honour, and present in the action. The King being informed 

1 Clarendon, always anxious to minimise Rupert's successes, says forty or 
fifty. 

-C. W-, i., and D.N.B., s. v. " Falkland". 



THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 255 

of the Earle of Essex marching to Worcester, and knowing 
that towne not terrible against any considerable forces, and 
desirous to put the best part of his Armie into one entire 
body, sent to Sir John Biron to quit the place, and joyne 
with Prince Robert, then at Bridgenorth. Prince Robert 
desirous to fetch off so gallant a man as Sir John Biron, 
marched through Worcester with his Troops, consisting of 
700, accompanied onely with Sir John Biron, his troops re- 
maining behind in Worcester. When they were out of the 
Town, Prince Robert being informed that the E. of Essex 
troops of Horse and Dragooners were at hand, marched 
towards them, saying, We are now ingaged for the honour 
of God and your countrey, fight valiantly : and immediately 
gave them a furious charge, which was stoutly answered by 
the Parliament Forces. This courage of theirs endured not 
long, for at the second charge they as fiercely ran away, in 
pursuit were taken prisoners, slain and drowned, above 400 
divers of which betook themselves to the mercy of a River, 
wherein perished four-score, whereof the Lord Sayes son is 
said to be one, but that is yet uncertain, but for certain both 
of them accompanied with Captain Browne a Scotchman, 
at the first encounter ran away, leaving those men to be 
slaughtered, some Gentlemen, (more sensible of honour 
than the rest) fought valiantly, as Sergeant Major Douglas, 
Col. Sands, Cap. Austin, Cap. Burrill, Cap. Berry, Cornett 
Hemon, Cornett West were slaine in the field ; Cap. Sands 
and Douglas lived some few houres after : Prince Robert 
sent a Divine to Captain Sands, who told him the Prince 
was troubled so gallant a man should perish in so unworthy 
an action, he gave the Prince thanks and said, death did not 
so much trouble him as that he had endeavoured to defend 
so bad a cause, which he was drawne into as well by his 
own ambition as by perswasion of other men, he was not 
able to deny (he further said) the flower of their Army was 



256 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

in this conflict, and wished all their actions hereafter might 
have the like successe, desiring that they would all pray for 
him, and especially that God would forgive him this great 
sinne of rebellion, which troubled him the more, having 
dilucively perswaded others thereunto by telling them that 
they fought against those that advanced the rebellion in 
Ireland, and were now in the action, Col. Sands was en- 
countered by Comisary Wilmot, but received his deaths 
wound by a Frenchman, he asked how Comisary Wilmot 
did seeing him wounded, being told his hurt was not 
dangerous, said, he was glad he had not his blood to answer 
for : Douglas likewise died not suddenly, he was likewise 
sensible of his offence. I spake with a Gentleman that 
brought him out of the field, to whom he confessed this was 
the third rebellion he had been in against the King, all which 
from his heart he hated, but was drawn into them for gain 
and sinister ends, and being taken prisoner in the North he 
was discharged and twenty pounds given him by the King : 
he was desirous to live, that he might discover to the King 
something that might in part expiate his former offences, 
which was prevented by his death. I have been the longer 
in the relation of these two Gentlemen's confessions before 
their deaths to make you sensible that the hearts of these 
men goe not along with their actions (their blouds lie heavy 
on those bontefeux that have engaged them and others, and 
so many men to their ruin and destruction). There were 
taken in the skirmish 50 or 60 prisoners, but none of note, 
and quality, but Captaine Wingate (a Parliament man) who 
is brought to Shrewsbery. The King was presented with 6 
or 7 Colours, the bearers of them either slaine or taken 
prisoners ; Prince Maurice hath received two or three Scarrs 
of Honour in his head, but is abroad and merry ; divers of our 
part hath received slight wounds [names follow]. I dare not 
tell you they lost more Hundreds than we single men, least 



THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 257 

the former part of my Letter may gaine the lesse beleife ; 
But I assure you it is confidently reported, that there were 
slaine on our part not above three or foure ; those Prisoners 
that were taken except Captaine Wingate are discharged, 
taking an oath not to beare Armes against the King; Most 
of them were men of meane quality, and so raw Souldiers 
that they understood not the word Quarter but cryed for 
mercy ; being demanded what condition they were : some 
said, they were Taylors, some Embroyderers and the like. 
By the latter end of this weeke I assure you our number 
will exceed those of the Earle of Essex, of which we are 
now rightly informed by the several prisoners we have 
taken, and if God for great Sinnes, together with the 
slight esteeme we have of Parliament forces, have not 
vengeance in store for us, and the whole Nation : the King 
having no other ambition but the advancement of the Pro- 
testant religion, and establishment of the Fundamental 
Lawes of this Kingdome. We have publique thanks for 
this Victory enjoyned by the King ; I have all this while 
heard of, and seene the many lyes permitted and contrived 
by them ; but I could never imagine men so irreligious, so 
impudent before God, as to give publicke thanks for the 
great Victory over the Cavaleers ; which is as false as God 
is true: I know I can expresse my Duty in nothing more 
than intreating your Lordship not to beleeve those false re- 
ports, which do as much make London dishabitable, as the 
Plague wont to do. 

" Your Lordshipps Infinitely Obedient 

" and Humble Servant 

" Falkland 

"Shrewsbury, September 27, 1642." l 

1,1 King's Pamphlets," E., 121, Brit. Mus. 
17 



258 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

This letter is of special interest on several grounds. It 
not only gives a singularly vivid account of the first impor- 
tant skirmish of the war, but it affords further confirmation 
of the belief, common to both sides, that the war would be 
of short duration. Clarendon certainly does not exaggerate 
the moral effect of Rupert's gallant charge. His cavalry 
was henceforth held in great respect by those to whom it 
was opposed, and his name soon became "very terrible". 
Falkland was never inclined to be over sanguine, but this 
letter proves that he too thought that this skirmish had re- 
vealed a radical weakness in the forces opposed to the King. 
" Men of mean quality " and " raw soldiers " many of them in- 
dubitably were. Falkland has been severely taken to task 
— notably by Mr. Gardiner 1 — for his superficial estimate, his 
grave miscalculation of essential forces, and his lack of pre- 
science in imagining that the war would soon be over, since 
these " tailors, embroiderers and the like," could not be ex- 
pected to resist the well-born and well-mounted Cavaliers 
who followed Rupert. But it is difficult to see wherein he 
was more short-sighted than Cromwell himself, who bluntly 
told his cousin Hampden that his troops were " most of them 
old decayed serving men and tapsters," and that he could 
not hope to win unless he got " men of a spirit that is likely 
to go on as far as gentlemen will go ". Cromwell's words are 
an echo of Falkland's ; and yet, curiously enough, Mr. Gardiner, 
with his habitual depreciation of Falkland, quotes Cromwell's 
words in illustration of his " grasp upon the needs of the 
present " as contrasted with " Falkland's visionary anticipa- 
tion of the intellectual charities of the future ". The truth 
is that from opposite points of observation Falkland and 
Cromwell had arrived at identical conclusions. But while 
in Cromwell they are evidence of "grasp," in Falkland they 
prove that he had little conception of the forces opposed to 
him. 2 

l D.N.B. 2 D.N.B.,s.v. 



THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 259 

The skirmish at Powick Bridge sufficed at any rate to 
prove both to the King and to his enemies that in Prince 
Rupert the Royalists had found an exceptionally brilliant 
cavalry leader. But alike in the field and in the closet Rupert 
had the defects of his qualities. Conspicuous even among 
the brave for courage, unequalled in nerve and dash, he was 
overbearing in temper, impatient of control and reckless of 
consequences. The command in chief had been entrusted to 
the Earl of Lindsey ; the generalship of the horse was given 
to Rupert with the inconvenient proviso that he should 
receive orders only from the King. Nothing could be worse 
from a military point of view than thus to make the cavalry 
independent of the other arms, and the folly of the arrange- 
ment was shown very early in the campaign. One night the 
King receiving intelligence of the enemy's movements sent 
Falkland at midnight with instructions to the Prince. The 
latter " took it very ill and expostulated with the Lord Falk- 
land for giving him orders ". Without any loss of temper 
Falkland replied " that it was his office to signify what the 
King bade him ; which he should always do " ; and that 
the Prince "in neglecting it neglected the King". The 
incident was significant ; for nothing did more harm to 
the King's cause than the lack of discipline among his 
forces and the constant quarrels between soldiers and 
civilians. 

The King, meanwhile, greatly encouraged by his recep- 
tion in Cheshire and Shropshire, left Shrewsbury on 12th 
October and marched south — roughly along the line of the 
present Great Western Railway — with the intention of mak- 
ing a dash on London. Essex lying about Banbury barred 
the way. The King reached Edgecot on Saturday, 22nd 
October, and quartered at Edgeworth, the house of Sir 
William Cherry. Falkland, Culpepper, Hyde and the Com- 
mander-in-Chief were at Culworth, about a mile away- 



260 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

On the following day the first pitched battle of the war was 
fought at Kineton or Edgehill. The battle itself was con- 
fused and the issue is generally described as doubtful, but 
all the substantial advantage remained with the King. Essex 
definitely failed to bar the Royalist advance on London and 
withdrew to Warwick ; the King marched on, captured 
Lord Say's Castle of Broughton, induced the strong garrison 
of Banbury to surrender, and on the 29th " found himself at 
good ease at Oxford . . . the only city of England that he 
could say was entirely at his devotion ". There he was re- 
ceived by the University " to whom the integrity and fidelity 
of that place is to be imputed with all joy and acclama- 
tion as Apollo should be by the muses". 1 

A word must be added as to Falkland's part in the 
battle of Edgehill. There, as always, his conduct was 
marked by reckless courage and tender humanity. " He 
always," says Clarendon, "engaged his person in those troops 
which he thought by the forwardness of the Commander to 
be most like to be farthest engaged ; and in all such en- 
counters he had about him a cheerfulness and companion- 
ableness without at all affecting the execution that was then 
principally to be attended, in which he took no delight but 
took pains to prevent it when it was not by resistance 
necessary." Thus at Edgehill when he saw the enemy in 
flight, "he was like to have incurred great peril by inter- 
posing to save those who had thrown away their arms . . . 
insomuch as a man might think he came into the field only 
out of curiosity to see the face of danger and charity to 
prevent the shedding of blood ". 2 A further note of Claren- 
don's suggests, however, that Falkland was by no means 
devoid of military insight : " Though the King's horse 
sustained no loss, and they who followed the enemy too far 
yet returned before it was night, either the officers would not 

1 C, iii., 279. 2 C. 



THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 261 

or could not rally so many of them together as would charge 
that small reserve, which still went about the field without 
standing in any place to expect a charge. The Lord Falk- 
land (who in all such actions forgot that he was Secretary 
of State, and desired to be where there would probably be 
most to do had that day chosen to charge with Wilmott, who 
charged on the left wing, declining, upon the former expostu- 
lation, to be on the other wing with Prince Rupert), used to 
protest that he saw no enemy that day of the horse that 
made any resistance ; and observing that body under Balfore 
wheel up and down, he spake to Wilmott that they might 
go and charge them, which the other seeming not to con- 
sider, he pressed him again ; to which the other made no 
answer but, ' My lord, we have got the day, and let us 
enjoy the fruits thereof; and after it was found, too late, 
what mischief that small body had done and continued to 
do, the officers could not rally their horse together, albeit 
they were all in the field." 

Notwithstanding conduct that was sometimes foolhardy, 
Falkland himself emerged safe from the fight ; but the 
King's losses were considerable. Among others, the stout 
old soldier Lindsey was mortally wounded, and the King's 
standard bearer, Sir Edmund Verney, faithful servant and 
chivalrous knight, fell, as he had expected, on the field. 
Between Verney and Falkland there was much in common. 
Both were very perfect gentle knights, sans peur et sans 
reproche: both were brought into the field by loyalty, 
the one to an institution, the other to a master whose 
bread he had eaten ; both represented the great middle 
party who loved not the Laudian bishops, but were faithful 
to Church and King ; both had some doubts as to the sound- 
ness of the cause for which they fought 

If the military result of Edgehill was mainly in favour 
of the King, the moral effect was entirely so. " Those," 



262 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

says the Puritan May, " who thought his success impossible 
began to look on him as one who might be a conqueror and 
many neuters joined him." Better than this : Edgehill 
strengthened the hands of the peace party now developing 
considerable strength in Parliament. Both Houses agreed 
to ask for a safe-conduct for a Committee of the Lords and 
Commons charged with the duty of opening negotiations, 
and on 6th November Falkland addressed to them the 
following letter from Reading, which the Royalist army had 
now reached : — 

" My Lord, 

"Your Lordship's of the 5th of this month I 
showed unto his Majesty, who hath commanded me to 
return your Lordship an answer in these words : That his 
Majesty hath now sent (which I have enclosed) a safe- 
conduct under his Royal hand and signet, for the Earl of 
Northumberland and the Earl of Pembroke and Mont- 
gomery, Mr. Pierpointe, the Lord Wenman, and Sir John 
Hippesley ; but hath not admitted Sir John Evelin, of 
Wilts, to attend him, as being included in the exception 
made by his Majesty in the letter of the 4th of this month, 
sent by Mr. Secretary Nicholas to your Lordship, as by 
the enclosed proclamation (proclaimed at his Majesty's 
Court at Oxford, and sent with a writ sealed in the county 
of Wilts) will appear. His Majesty hath likewise commanded 
me to signify to your Lordship that, in case the Houses 
shall think fit to send any other person in the place of Sir 
John Evelin, that is not included in the exception made in 
Mr. Secretary's letter before mentioned, his Majesty hath 
commanded all his officers and soldiers and other subjects 
to suffer him as freely to pass and repass as if his name 



THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 263 

had been particularly comprised in this safe-conduct. This 
being all that I have in commission, I rest 

" Your Lordship's humble servant, 
" Falkland 

" Reading, November 6, 1642. 

" For the Right Honourable the Lord Gray of Warke, 
Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore." 

Five days later the King reached Colnbrook, where he 
met the deputation from Parliament. The tone on both 
sides was conciliatory ; but Rupert was unwilling to forgo, 
by agreeing to a cessation, the decided military advantage 
he had obtained. Without regard, therefore, to peace 
negotiations he pushed on to and captured Brentford on 
1 2th November. On the following day he found him- 
self confronted by a solid phalanx of 24,000 Londoners 
drawn up on Turnham Green. That shield he could not 
pierce. Turnham Green was, according to Mr. Gardiner's 
happy comparison, the "Valmy" of the English Civil War. 
London was saved ; Rupert was baffled ; and the King was 
compelled to fall back on Reading. 

Having failed to push through to London he was now 
anxious to reopen negotiations. Accordingly, Falkland 
was commanded to forward to Lord Grey of Warke, as 
" Speaker of the Peers pro tem." the King's reply to the 
answer of Parliament to his message of 12th November. 1 
This document was, in effect, an elaborate vindication of 
the King's good faith in regard to the action at Brentford. 
Rupert's conduct was bitterly and not unnaturally resented 
by Parliament, and they were now willing to treat only on 
condition that the King would return to the capital and 
abandon the " delinquents " to their mercy. The condition 

1 It may be read in S. P. Dom., Car. I., ccccxcii., 59; or Rushworth, v., 
63- 



264 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

was impossible. Rupert's impetuosity — not without justifi- 
cation from the purely military standpoint— had shattered 
for the moment the hopes of Falkland and the peace party. 
By the end of November the King and his principal 
Secretary of State had taken up their winter quarters at 
Oxford. 



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CHAPTER II 

FALKLAND AT OXFORD 

FOR the next four years Oxford was the head -quarters 
of the King and the Court. 
Both on strategic and political grounds the choice of 
Oxford was a wise one. Surrounded on three sides by 
rivers, with an outer circle of low hills, the city itself was 
easily defensible. Geographically also it was well placed. 
Lying just on the line which roughly divided the country of 
the King from that of the Parliament, it formed, until its 
surrender on 24th June, 1646, the most Easterly outpost 
of the King. It was within easy striking distance of the 
capital, and in touch with the King's principal recruiting 
grounds in the North, the West Midlands and the South- 
West. But for the enormous advantage given to the 
Parliamentary forces by the command of the sea, the 
wisdom of the King's choice would have been even more 
clearly demonstrated. Even as it was, the immense strateg- 
ical importance of Oxford is shown conclusively enough by 
the fact that so many of the battlefields of the first Civil War 
are within a small radius from the city. Edgehill itself 
lies just over twenty-five miles to the North ; Cropredy a 
little less ; Newbury is twenty-five miles to the South- West ; 
Chalgrove field is ten miles to the South-East ; while Oxford 
itself alone compelled Essex, at the head of the London 
train-bands, to deviate to the East on his famous march to 
the relief of Gloucester in September, 1643. 

265 



266 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Politically the wisdom of the choice was not less ob- 
vious. Oxford had not infrequently served as a sort of 
a relief capital when on sanitary or other grounds it was 
found desirable to remove Parliament from Westminster. 
Particularly was this the case in the seventeenth century. 
There could therefore be no constitutional incongruity in 
the sight of a Parliament holding its session in the Schools 
or Convocation House. 

The political temper of the inhabitants was dubious. 
The townsmen in the main inclined to the side of Parlia- 
ment, 1 the University — though by no means unanimously — 
to that of the King. " Nothing," wrote Laud, " can be 
transacted in the State without its being immediately 
winnowed in the Parliaments of the Scholars." Soon after 
the meeting of the Long Parliament, the truth of Laud's 
words received striking illustration. A fierce conflict raged 
in the streets, and as though to recall the contests of the 
Middle Ages, the alarm bells were rung at St. Mary's and 
St. Martin's. 2 Similar evidence is supplied by a contem- 
porary work, 3 which describes a characteristic episode as, 
taking place " in the parish of Holywell neare Oxon". A 
certain " most licentious and profane fellow " set up on a may- 
pole the effigy of a well-known Puritan, " a manciple of one 
of the Colleges," held up to derision " because he was truly 
religious and used repetition of sermons, singing of psalms 
and other holy duties in his house ". Finally, the " profane 
fellow . . . with his loose and licentious companions, making 
themselves mad-merry about it, must needs go shoot at the 
Roundhead, and having for this purpose brought muskets 
with them . . . one of them shot and did hit the picture ". 

1 Cf. a long and interesting letter from the city members to Lenthall, 
3rd September, 1642, Hist. MSS. Com., 13 Rep., App. I. (Portland I., 1891). 

2 Boase, p. 149. 

3 John Vicars, A looking-glass for malignants, or God's hand against 
God-haters, etc. (1643) p. 67. 



FALKLAND AT OXFORD 267 

Such scenes were doubtless frequently enacted during the 
early days of the Long Parliament when passions were 
ebullient and discipline was relaxed. 

On the eve of the war both sides were naturally anxious 
to secure the support of the University and the command 
of the city. Thus on 7th July the King writing from York 
addressed a requisition to the Vice-Chancellor Prideaux 
asking for a loan of money at 8 per cent, from the Uni- 
versity and the Colleges, and declaring that similar assist- 
ance had already been given to the Parliament. To this 
appeal some Colleges appear to have responded, and 
Convocation without demur voted away all the reserve 
funds, amounting to some .£800 in Bodley's, Savile's and 
the University chests. On learning of this requisition 
Parliament immediately issued an order declaring it to be 
illegal, and directed that a strict watch should be kept on 
all the highways near Oxford ; but despite this precaution 
a substantial sum reached the hands of the King in York- 
shire. In gratitude for this timely assistance Charles issued 
injunctions to the Commissioners of Array for the county, 
the high sheriff, and the mayor of Oxford that steps should 
be taken for the protection of the University. Meanwhile, 
the University was not slow to realise its dangerous position 
and to prepare for eventualities. " Upon the publication," 
writes Wood 1 (August, 1642), " of his Majestie's proclamation 
for the suppressing of the rebellion under the conduct and 
command of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the members 
of the Universitie of Oxon began to put themselves in a 
posture of defence, and especially for another reason, 
which was that there was a stray report that divers com- 
panies of soldiers were passing through the country as 
sent from London by the parliament for the securing of 
Banbury and Warwick." 

1 Life (ed. Clark) on which this chapter is largely based. 



268 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

At this critical moment Oxford was without a Vice- 
Chancellor. Dr. Prideaux, Rector of Exeter College, and 
Vice-Chancellor in 164.1, had been appointed Bishop of 
Worcester, and had left the University without formally 
resigning office. The main burden of organising the 
defence fell therefore upon Dr. Robert Pink, Warden of 
New College and Pro- Vice-Chancel lor, who by vote of 
Convocation was called upon to discharge the duties of 
the defaulting bishop. Dr. Pink called out the " scholars 
and the privileged men of the Universitie," and they 
brought with them the " furniture of every College that 
then had armes". They were drilled in the quadrangle of 
New College, to the " great disturbance of the youth of the 
city," and especially of the boys at the College School, 
" some of whom could never be brought to their books 
again ". At times the scholar-recruits who " were pro- 
miscuously both graduates and undergraduates ; a great 
many of them Masters of Art, yea divines allso," assembled 
for drill in " Newe parkes " where " they were put into 
battel arraye and skirmished together in a very decent 
manner". Other precautions were taken. Opposite Mag- 
dalen " the high-way was blocked up with longe timber 
logges to keepe out horsemen"; three or four loads of 
stones were carried up to Magdalen tower to " flinge down 
upon the enemie at their entrance " ; a crooked trench was 
dug in the road from "Newe parkes" between Wadham 
and St. John's College gardens ; and a strict guard was 
kept at the several gates. At midnight on Sunday, 28th 
August, some temporary alarm was created by the arrival 
of a troop of Royalist horse under Sir John Byron, who 
reached Oxford after a skirmish with some of Lord Brooke's 
men near Brackley. Byron then assumed command of the 
city, but his efforts to put it in a posture of defence were 
seriously hampered by the townsmen. The latter were 



FALKLAND AT OXFORD 269 

already in communication with the Parliamentary forces in 
Buckinghamshire, whose propinquity appears to have some- 
what diminished the military ardour of Dr. Pink and his 
" schollers ". A special Delegacy, popularly known as The 
Councell of Warre, was appointed to co-operate with the 
King's troops in organising the defence of the city, but on 
rumours of an impending attack from the Parliamentarians 
it was deemed prudent to send emissaries to Aylesbury, 
and to hasten the departure of Sir John Byron and his 
troop. The Parliamentary commanders took the protesta- 
tions of the University at their true value, sent Dr. Pink in 
custody to London, and on 12th September occupied the 
city with a considerable force under Colonel Goodwin. 
Two days later Lord Say and Sele, recently appointed by 
the Parliament to be Lord Lieutenant of the county, arrived 
in Oxford and assumed the direction of affairs. 

Lord Say's occupation lasted for about a fortnight, but 
he treated the University with a forbearance which suggests 
that Parliament did not yet despair of securing its adhesion. 
The embryo fortifications were demolished, and a rigorous 
search was instituted for plate and arms. But except for 
the destruction of the image of the Virgin and Child over 
St Mary's porch, " the combustion of divers Popish books 
and pictures," and the smashing of a picture of the King, 
" made of alabaster and gilt over," in the Warden's lodgings 
at New College, little damage was done. A certain Scot, 
however, is said to have " marvayled how the schollers 
could goe to their bukes for those painted idolatrous 
wyndows" (in Christ Church). Christ Church, its Dean 
(Dr. Fell), and University College lost their plate as a 
punishment for their efforts to conceal it ; but to the rest 
of the Colleges it was, with questionable wisdom, restored 
upon condition " it should be forthcoming at the parlia- 
ment's appointment and not employed at the least against 



270 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

the parliament". Having disarmed the gownsmen and 
threatened the Heads of Houses "that unless they could 
assure him of the peace and quiet of the University for the 
time to come, he was minded to place a garrison of soldiers 
here," Lord Say took his departure. All available forces 
were needed in Warwickshire to stop the King's march on 
London, and Oxford for the time was quit of the " russett 
coates ". 

For nearly four years, from October, 1642, until June, 
1646, Oxford was the centre and focus of Royalist England. 
To Oxford all the machinery of government and administra- 
tion was, as far as possible, transferred. There met the 
Royalist Parliament — a majority of the House of Lords, a 
minority of the House of Commons ; there Courts sat ; there 
the King dwelt. Among the band of councillors who were 
henceforth generally in Oxford, Clarendon mentions the 
Marquis of Hertford, now Governor of the Prince of Wales ; 
Lord Southampton, a persistent advocate of peace ; the 
Earl of Leicester: the Earl of Bristol, famous as King 
James's ambassador to Madrid ; the Earl of Berkshire, who, 
though taken and imprisoned by Parliament, was set at 
liberty " as a man that could do them no harm anywhere " ; 
Mr. Secretary Nicholas; Sir John Bankes, Chief Justice of 
the Common Pleas ; the Lord-Keeper Lord Littleton ; Sir 
Peter Wich, Controller of the Household ; Sir John Cul- 
pepper, and Hyde himself, who, in February, 1643, was 
sworn of the Privy Council, and in March was appointed 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. Falkland, as Secretary of 
State, was continuously at the King's side, and it is necessary, 
therefore, to attempt to realise the milieu in which the last 
year of his life was, for the most part, spent. 

Oxford ceased to be a place of learning and was con- 
verted into a camp. University routine was suspended ; 
few lectures were given, few exercises were performed, and 



FALKLAND AT OXFORD 271 

except for the honorary degrees lavishly conferred upon the 
nobles and courtiers in the King's train, the register of de- 
grees would be almost a blank for the years 1643 to 1646. 
We may note, however, that in a Convocation holden in St. 
Mary's Church on All Hallows' Day, 1642, Prince Charles, 
having been created M.A. at Cambridge, was " incorpor- 
ated," while the Duke of York was created Master of Arts. 1 
Clarendon throws a lurid light upon the state of the King's 
councils during these critical years — the fatal lack of unity ; 
the endless intrigues ; the woeful need of a strong guiding and 
dominating hand such as Strafford might have supplied ; 
but it is to Anthony Wood that we naturally turn for a 
picture of the daily life at Oxford ; and a wonderfully vivid 
picture he paints. The city assumed more and more the 
aspect of a fortress ; the Colleges, emptied of scholars, were 
turned into royal palaces, barracks and arsenals. The 
King and the young Princes, and the chief members of the 
staff, were lodged at Christ Church ; the Queen, after her 
arrival in July, 1643, made Merton her home. Between the 
two Colleges a back-way was specially made " through one 
of the canon's gardens, another garden belonging to Christ 
Church College, and then through Merton College grove ". 
The Queen " was lodged in the Warden's house, occuping at 
intervals for nearly three years the room still known as 

1 Mrs. Sturge Henderson in her charming book Three Centuries of Life in 
North Oxfordshire, prints the following letter from Lord Falkland to the Vice 
Chancellor, bidding him confer the degree of D.D. upon one William Stampe, 
Vicar of Stepney. "The King's majesty taking into his princely considera- 
tion the great sufferings of William Stampe, who hath not only undergone 
a long and hard imprisonment of 34 weeks, but also is now ousted of a very 
good living, and all this for preaching loyalty and obedience to a disaffected 
congregation to the extream hazard of his life, His Majesty being willing to 
repair these his sufferings, and to encourage his known abilities (for which 
by special favour and grace he is sworn chaplain to his dearest son the 
prince) hath commanded me to signify to you that you forthwith confer upon 
him the degree of Doctor of Divinity." 



272 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

' The Queen's Room ' and the drawing room adjoining. 
The King was constantly there, probably finding Merton a 
pleasant retreat from the bustle of Christ Church". l Prince 
Rupert and Prince Maurice occupied the Town Clerk's 
residence, and Culpepper lived in Wood's own house 
opposite Merton College. Oxford was not really besieged, 
except for a fortnight in the spring of 1645, unt il after 
the King's final departure in 1646; but every preparation 
for standing a siege had long since been made. Trenches 
were dug on the north and south of the city, and partially 
on the west. The work " on the north of St. Giles's Church 
was to be done by the townsmen, and six score and two on 
their part appointed to work there daily," says Wood, " till it 
were done: that work by St. John's College walks was to be 
done by the county or shire ; and that moles in Newe-parkes 
was to be done by the privileged persons . . . (the Colleges 
sending forth workmen also) ". A deep trench was afterwards 
dug from the corner of Merton College wall to the Physic 
Garden, and a "cut of ground toward the further end of 
East Bridge by S. Clement was made for the letting in of 
Charwell river the better to overflow Christ Church mede 
and Cowley lands about Millham bridge, for the meeting 
of Charwell and Thames together for defence of the city ". 
Later on further precautions were taken in consequence of 
news that the Parliamentary forces had advanced from 
Reading, " and come stealing along among and under the 
woods to Nettlebed, and so little by little to Stokenchurch, 
from whence they got under the covert of the woods to 
Tame". The houses in St. Clement's Parish, outside the 
trenches, were pulled down, and Bartholomew's Grove or 
Ulmetum was cut down all in one day " for fear lest the enemy 
drawing near to besiege the town might harbour therein ". 
Bells were melted down for the casting of ordnance, 
1 Brodrick, Memorials of Merton College. 



FALKLAND AT OXFORD 273 

and New College cloister and tower were converted into 
a magazine for arms and gunpowder. "Whereupon the 
master of the school there, with his scholars " (among them 
Anthony himself) " were removed to the choristers' chamber 
at the east end of the common hall of the said Coll. It 
was then," adds Wood with feeling, " a dark nasty room and 
very unfit for such a purpose, which made the scholars often 
complain, but in vain." And while " most of the armes 
and furniture of artillerie, as bulletts, gunpowder for the 
ordinance, match, etc., was laide up in Newe College Cloy- 
ster and Tower," a gunpowder mill was set up at Osney ; 
drawbridges were manufactured in the Rhetoric School ; 
wheat was stored at the Guildhall ; oats and corn at the 
Law School and Logic School, and military outfits at the 
Music School. A small army of tailors, " foreigners as well 
as townsmen," were engaged to cut out and make up 
these uniforms " to the number of four or five thousand ". 
The lawyers jostled the soldiers. The Court of Chancery, 
under the presidency of Lord-Keeper Littleton, was held 
in the New Convocation House at the Schools; the Court 
of Requests sat under Sir Thomas Ailesbury, one of the 
Masters, in the Natural Philosophy School. The Assizes of 
Oyer and Terminer were held before the Lord Chief Justice 
Heath at the Guildhall. 

Services appear to have been held regularly in the 
College Chapels, and during the Queen's stay at Merton 
there were, as Wood remarks, " divers marriages, christenings 
and burials in the Chapel ". Sermons were preached regu- 
larly at St. Mary's, the University Church. Many of these 
are still in print, and it is remarked by Mr. Ffoulkes, a 
recent vicar of the Church, that though some of them touch 
on the sin of rebellion and the Divine right of kings, most 
of them dwell on the wickedness of the times and the 
miseries of war. Among the more notable discourses was 

18 



274 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

that of Chillingworth, preached before the King in 1643, 
to which reference has already been made. When the 
fortunes of war turned against the King an order was issued 
(28th December, 1645) that special forms of prayer should 
be used in the College Chapels " during these bad times ". 

But the bad times were still some way in the future. 
The hearts of sober-minded patriots were torn with grief 
at the horrors of civil war, but during the period of Falk- 
land's residence the hopes of the Royalists were high ; gaiety 
pervaded the Court ; and all was bustle in the city. The 
movement of troops was incessant. Day by day Anthony 
Wood records the arrival of this troop, the departure of 
that. News comes to-day of Newcastle's successes in the 
North, or of Hopton's victories in the West, and bonfires 
blaze out in all parts of the city. Next day there is an 
alarm of the massing of the Parliamentary troops near at hand 
— an impending attack, now from the side of Banbury, now 
from Wantage, and now from Aylesbury. One day the 
Spanish ambassador arrives to complain of the seizure of a 
Spanish ship by Lord Warwick ; another day is marked by 
the arrival of peace envoys from London, a third by that of 
Commissioners from Scotland. All through this time the 
temper both of the Oxford townsmen and the inhabitants 
of the surrounding districts was obviously uncertain. Both 
were disarmed in the early days of the occupation, the arms 
of the trained-bands of the county being stored in a chamber 
in " Pecwaters Inne " at Christ Church, those of the citizens at 
the Schools. Nor did the latter display any great assiduity 
in the work of fortification. Again and again the tasks 
allotted to the townsmen were unperformed, and the King 
had to appeal — not in vain — to the University for help. 

Particularly was this the case in regard to finance. On 
3rd January, 1643, there arrived at Oxford " diverse carts, to 
the number of twelve or more," laden with Prince Rupert's 



FALKLAND AT OXFORD 275 

luggage, with the mint from Shrewsbury, and " with some 
good store of silver ore to be melted into silver and coined 
into money ". The mint was set up in New Inn Hall, and a 
few days later the King addressed a letter to all the Col- 
leges asking for the loan of the College plate. The letter 
addressed to All Souls, which is doubtless typical of the rest, 
has been already printed 1 but is of sufficient interest to 
justify reproduction : — 

"Charles R., 

" Trusty and wellbeloved, we grete you well. We 
are soo well satisfied with your readynesse and affection to 
our service that we cannot doubt but you will take all 
occasions to express the same. And as we are ready to sell 
or engage any of our land, soo we have melted down our 
plate for the payment of our army raysed for our defence 
and the preservation of the kingdome. And having re- 
ceyved severall quantityes of plate from diverse of our loving 
subjects wee have moved our Mint hither to our City of 
Oxford for the coyning thereof, and we do hereby desire 
that you will lend unto us all such Plate of what kynd 
soever w ch belongs to y r College, promising you to see the 
same justly repayed unto you after the rate of 5 S< the ounce 
for white and 5 s * 6 d ' for gilt plate as soon as God shall 
enable us ; for assure yourselves we shall never lett persons 
for whom we have so greate a care to suffer for their affec- 
tion to us, but shall take speciall order for the repayment of 
what you have already lent to us, according to our promise, 
and allsoo of this you now lend in plate, well knowing it to 
be the goods of your Colledge that you ought not to alien, 
though no man will doubt but in such a case you may 
lawfully lend to assist your King in such visible necessity. 
And we have entrusted our trusty and well beloved S r " W m . 
1 Burrows, Worthies of All Souls. 



276 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Parkhurst, K t# and Thos. Bushell, Esq. officers of our Mint, 
or either of them, to receive the same Plate from you, who 
upon weighing thereof shall give you a receipt under their 
or one of their hands for the same. And we assure ourselfe 
of your very greate willingnesse to gratify us herein, since 
besides the more publique considerations you cannot but 
knowe how much yo r selves are concerned in our sufferings. 
And we shall remember this particular service to your ad- 
vantage. Given at our Court at Oxford this 6 th day of 
January, 164%. 

" Addressed — Warden and Fellowes of All Soules Col- 
ledge." 

With this request practically all the Colleges complied. 
Clarendon contrives to envelope the matter in something 
more than his customary confusion, but it has been elucidated 
by the researches of Prof. Montagu Burrows. 1 He has made 
it clear that " the Colleges of Oxford made two and only two 
contributions to the royal treasury " : the first, as already 
described, in July, 1642 ; the second, in response to the letter 
just quoted. On the first occasion the University sent, ac- 
cording to Wood, £860, " but what each College or private 
person gave," he adds, " I find not." 2 Clarendon 3 puts the 
total then contributed at " above £10,000, out of the several 
stocks of the Colleges and the purses of particular persons, 
many whereof sent him all they had " ; and elsewhere he says 
"the messengers returned from the two Universities . . . 
and brought with them all, or very near all their plate ". 
Cambridge — wisely enough in view of contingencies — un- 
doubtedly sent plate, but Prof. Burrows proves conclusively 
that the Oxford contribution — apart from possible gifts by 
individuals — was on that occasion almost entirely in cash. 
All Souls, for example, sent £651 7s. 3d. On the second 

1 Worthies of All Souls, c. x. 2 Annals, nth July, 1642. 3 vi., 167. 



FALKLAND AT OXFORD 277 

occasion, on the contrary, the contribution consisted mainly 
of plate. 

The Tanner MSS., preserved in Gutch's Collectanea 
Curiosa gives an account of the silver contributed by the 
various colleges and by private individuals. From this it 
appears that Magdalen sent in 296 lbs.; All Souls 253 lbs. ; 
Exeter 246 lbs. ; Queen's 193 lbs. ; Trinity 174 lbs. ; Christ 
Church 172 lbs.; Brasenose 121 lbs.; Jesus 86 lbs. ; Oriel 
52 lbs.; Merton 79 lbs.; University 61 lbs.; Lincoln 47 
lbs., and Balliol 41 lbs. Much of the plate of Christ Church 
and University had been already seized, as we have seen, 
by Lord Say ; but New College, St. John's, Wadham, 
Pembroke and Corpus are omitted from the list — probably 
by accident. The contribution of Wadham, as is con- 
clusively proved by a document in their archives, amounted 
to 100 lbs. 10 oz. 15 dwt. of white plate, and 23 lbs. 
4 oz. of gilt ; the Fellows of New College kept back " only 
their communion plate and three cups made of Indian 
nuts " ; l Corpus sent in its plate somewhat later, and the 
honour of St. John's is also completely vindicated. There 
can, therefore, be no doubt that with the exception of 
some communion plate, and a very few pieces of peculiar 
historical value, still happily preserved, the whole of the 
College plate, and not a little belonging to individuals, went 
into the melting pot in New Inn Hall. 

But despite the self-sacrificing loyalty of the University, 
money was never too plentiful with the King, and there 
was like to be a shortage of ammunition also. There were 
not left at this time, in Oxford, says Clarendon, " above forty 
barrels of powder, and match and bullet proportionately". 
With provisions, on the contrary, the King was amply 
supplied. The Parliamentarians imagined that the Court 
would be starved into submission. The people, in London, 
1 Rashdall and Rait, New College, p. 165. 



278 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

writes Clarendon, 1 " did generally believe that the King, and 
the little army he had with him, were in so great straits for 
want of provision in Oxford, that they were compelled to 
eat horseflesh ; and that they would in a short time be 
forced to return to the parliament, that they might avoid the 
being starved ; and either to keep up this imagination, or 
that they did themselves believe the scarcity to be very great, 
these commissioners brought with them a great quantity of 
provisions, even of bread and beer, as well as of beef and 
mutton and fowl, sufficient to feed the whole company that 
came with them, during such time as they believed they 
should stay there, of which they were ashamed as soon as 
they entered Oxford, and saw the great plenty in the 
markets, not only of the usual common fare, but of those 
choice fowl, of pheasants, partridge, cocks, snipes, in that 
abundance, as they were not so well furnished in London ; 
besides the best fish and wild fowl, which was brought in 
every day, from the western part, in such plenty that it can 
hardly be imagined. So that they were quickly converted 
from giving credit to that rumour, and it may be by it 
judged the better of the want of integrity in many other 
reports." Nor is there any evidence that at any later period 
provisions ran short. There was no reason why they should. 
The city, as we have seen, was not really invested, and 
between Oxford and the " girdle of fortresses " which pro- 
tected it, there was a considerable stretch of country where 
agricultural operations might have been carried on in com- 
parative tranquillity. Epidemic sickness, it is true, broke 
out more than once, but the insanitary condition of an over- 
crowded camp accounted sufficiently for that. An early 
closing order was issued in January, 1643, to the effect that 
" neither vintner nor any other victualer in Oxford should 
suffer any wyne or drinke to be sold in his house to any- 

1 Life, u, 164. 



FALKLAND AT OXFORD 279 

body after nine of the clocke at night upon payne of forfeit- 
ing 10s. toties quolies" . Apart from this prudent restriction 
there was little to interrupt ordinary social intercourse or 
even to discourage the organisation of the special festivities 
which naturally followed on the arrival of the Queen. 

Henrietta Maria, whose activity in the collection of 
money, arms and men had been incessant, landed at Bridling- 
ton Bay from Holland on 22nd February. From Bridling- 
ton she went, under Newcastle's escort, to York, and there 
awaited an opportunity of rejoining the King. For some 
months the meeting, eagerly longed for, was necessarily 
deferred. But by the beginning of July the country between 
York and Oxford was practically clear, and the Queen was 
able to set out for the South. The activity of Rupert's 
cavalry warded off any possible interruption of her march 
by Essex, and on nth July Rupert himself welcomed the 
Queen at Stratford. Two days later the King and Queen 
met at Edgehill. " The King," writes Wood, " with his 
troops that were here in Oxford with the younge prince 
and the Duke of Yorke, rode forth to meet the Queene 
comminge out of the north country and they mett together 
at Edgehill where the battle was." On the evening of 14th 
July the King and Queen entered Oxford in State and were 
received with much University and civic ceremony at Christ 
Church. From July, 1643, to April, 1644, the Queen made 
her home at Merton. During those months the social 
gaieties at Oxford reached their zenith. John Inglesant is 
modestly described as a "romance," but it has received the 
imprimatur of one of the most erudite of Oxford antiquaries, 1 
and as there is no single passage known to me which gives 
so vivid an impression of the strangely commingling elements 
which made up the social life of the Royalist headquarters, 
I venture to quote it : — 

1 The late Rev. C. W. Boase of Exeter College. 



28o FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

" Mixed up with these grave and studious persons, gay- 
courtiers and gayer ladies jostled old and severe divines and 
college heads, and crusty tutors used the sarcasms they had 
been wont to hurl at their pupils to reprove ladies whose 
conduct appeared to them, at least, far from decorous. 
Christmas interludes were enacted in Hall, and Shake- 
speare's plays performed by the King's players, assisted by 
amateur performers. The groves and walks of the colleges, 
and especially Christ Church meadow and the Grove at 
Trinity, were the resort of this gay and brilliant throng ; 
the woods were vocal with song and music, and love and 
gallantry sported themselves along the pleasant river banks. 
The poets and wits vied with each other in classic conceits 
and parodies, wherein the events of the day and every indi- 
vidual incident were portrayed and satirised. Wit, learning 
and religion joined hand in hand, as in some grotesque and 
brilliant masque. The most admired poets and players and 
the most profound mathematicians became 'Romanists' 
and monks, and exhausted all their wit and poetry and 
learning in furthering their divine mission, and finally, as 
the last scenes of this strange drama came on, fell fighting 
on some hardly contested grassy slope, and were buried on 
the spot, or in the next village churchyard, in the dress in 
which they played Philaster, or the Court garb in which 
they wooed their mistress, or the doctor's gown in which 
they preached before the King or read Greek in the schools. 
It was really no inapt hyperbole of the classic wits which 
compared this motley scene to the marriage of Jupiter and 
Juno of old, when all the gods were invited to the feast, and 
many noble personages besides, but to which also came a 
motley company of mummers, maskers, fantastic phantoms, 
whifflers, thieves, rufflers, gulls, wizards and monsters, and 
among the rest Crysalus, a Persian Prince bravely attended, 
clad in rich and gay attire, and of majestic presence, but 



FALKLAND AT OXFORD 281 

otherwise an ass ; whom the gods at first, seeing him enter 
in such pomp, rose and saluted, taking him for one worthy 
of honour and high place ; and whom Jupiter, perceiving 
what he was, turned with his retinue into butterflies, who 
continued in pied coats roving about among the gods and the 
wiser sort of men. Something of this kind here happened, 
when wisdom and folly, vice and piety, learning and gaiety, 
terrible earnest even to death and light frivolity, jostled each 
other in the stately precincts of Parnassus and Olympus." 

In these social frivolities Falkland took little part. 
Already the heavy clouds of depression were beginning to 
overshadow his sanguine and sunny temper. They deepened 
as the sad months of fratricidal war went on, and as the 
prospects of peace faded further and further into distance. 
Not even the Royalist victories in the field availed to lift 
them. But even now there were moments when the old 
gaiety broke out. One such is recorded by Clarendon. 
The King appears to have prided himself upon an apprecia- 
tion of style, and to have somewhat resented Falkland's 
alteration of his memoranda : " My Lord Carleton," * said 
the King, "ever brought me my own sense in my own 
words; but my Lord Falkland most commonly brought 
me my instructions in so fine a dress that I did not always 
own them." 2 Some hint to this effect may have reached 
Falkland's ears. At any rate he took quick advantage of 
the King's weakness on the point. " His Majesty one day 
speaking with the Lord Falkland very graciously concerning 
Mr. Hyde, said he had such a peculiar style, that he could 
know any thing written by him, if it were brought to him 
by a stranger, amongst a multitude of writings by other 
men. The Lord Falkland answered, he doubted his Majesty 
could hardly do that, because he himself, who had so long 
conversation and friendship with him was often deceived ; 

1 Afterwards Viscount Dorchester, Secretary of State, 1628-32. 

2 Warwick, Memoires, p. 72, ap. Lewis. 



282 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

and often met with things written by him, of which he could 
never have suspected him, upon the variety of arguments. 
To which the King replied, he would lay him an angel, that 
let the argument be what it would, he should never bring 
him a sheet of paper (for he would not undertake to judge 
of less) of his writing, but he would discover it to be his. 
The Lord Falkland told him it should be a wager ; but 
neither the one nor the other ever mentioned it to Mr. 
Hyde. Some days after the Lord Falkland brought several 
packets, which he had then received from London to the 
King, before he had opened them, as he used to do ; and 
after he had read his several letters of intelligence, he took 
out the prints of diurnals and speeches, and the like, which 
were every day printed at London, and as constantly sent 
to Oxford : and amongst the rest there were two speeches, 
the one made by the Lord Pembroke for an accommodation, 
and the other by the Lord Brooke against it ; and for the 
carrying on the war with more vigour, and utterly to root 
out the Cavaliers, which were the King's party. The King 
was very much pleased with reading the speeches, and said, 
he did not think that Pembroke could speak so long to- 
gether ; though every word he said was so much his own, 
that nobody else could make it. And so after he had pleased 
himself with reading the speeches over again, and then passed 
to other papers, the Lord Falkland whispered in his ear (for 
there were other persons by,) desiring him he would pay him 
the angel : which his Majesty in the instant apprehending, 
blushed, and put his hand in his pocket and gave him an 
angel, saying, he had never paid a wager more willingly ; 
and was very merry upon it, and would often call upon Mr. 
Hyde for a speech, or a letter, which he very often prepared 
upon several occasions ; and the King always commanded 
them to be printed." * 

1 Clarendon, Life, i., 161. 



FALKLAND AT OXFORD 283 

It would not perhaps be proper to omit all reference to 
another incident which is supposed to have occurred during 
Falkland's sojourn at Oxford. The story is first found in 
Wellwood's Memoirs} and finds a place in most biographies 
of Falkland, though Gardiner passes it by in contemptuous 
silence. Wellwood, who was physician to William III., intro- 
duces the story apologetically, and speaks of the occurrence 
as "an accident which though a trifle in itself, and that no 
weight is to be laid upon anything of that nature ; yet since 
the best authors, both ancient and modern, have not thought 
it below the majesty of history to mention the like it may 
be the more excusable to insert it. The King . . . went 
one day to see the Public Library when he was showed 
among other books a Virgil nobly printed and exquisitely 
bound. The lord Faulkland, to divert the King, would have 
his Majesty make a trial of his fortune by the Sortes Virgili- 
anae, which, everybody knows, was an usual kind of augury 
some ages past. Whereupon, the King opening the book, 
the period which happened to come up was that part of 
Dido's imprecation against yEneas which Mr. Dryden trans- 
lates thus : — 

Yet let a race untamed, and haughty foes, 
His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose; 
Oppressed with numbers in th' unequal field, 
His men discouraged, and himself expell'd, 
Let him for succour sue from place to place, 
Torn from his subjects, and his son's embrace. 
First let him see his friends in battle slain, 
And their untimely fate lament in vain ; 
And when at length the cruel war shall cease, 
On hard conditions may he buy his peace ; 
Nor let him then enjoy supreme command, 
But fall untimely by some hostile hand, 
And lie unburied on the barren sand. 

" It is said King Charles seemed concerned at this 
accident, and that the Lord Falkland, observing it, would 
1 According to Lady T. Lewis. 



284 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

likewise try his own fortune in the same manner, hoping he 
might fall upon some passage that could have no relation to 
his case, and thereby divert the King's thoughts from any 
impression the other might have upon him ; but the place 
that Falkland stumbled upon was yet more suited to his 
destiny than the other had been to the King's ; being the 
following expressions of Evander upon the untimely death 
of his son Pallas, as they are translated by the same 
hand : — 

Pallas ! thou hast failed thy plighted word, 
To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword : 

1 warn'd thee, but in vain ; for well I knew 
What perils youthful ardour would pursue ; 
That boiling blood would carry thee too far, 
Young as thou wert in dangers, raw to war ! 
O curst essay of arms, disastrous doom, 
Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come." 1 

There is nothing inherently improbable in the story, for 
as Lady Verney points out " belief in astrology and divina- 
tion of various kinds was still strong. . . . ' A fate ' was often 
forecast by a chance verse out of the Bible or a line from 
Virgil who seems to have retained something of the sanctity 
with which Dante regarded him three centuries before." 
Among other instances Lady Verney quotes — uncritically 
— this story of Falkland and the King and a letter written 
by Cowley when secretary to Lord Jermyn. " The Scotch 
treaty," he writes, " I hope will come to pass. The King is 
persuaded of it, and to tell you the truth, which I take to be 
an argument above all the rest, Virgil has told the same thing 
to that purpose." 2 

The story of the visit to the Bodleian has, however, no 
contemporary authority, and it is in itself so remarkable 
that we may well agree with Lady Theresa Lewis that " it 
is in the highest degree improbable that Lord Clarendon, so 

1 Wellwood, Memoirs. 2 Verney, Memoirs, i., 120. 



FALKLAND AT OXFORD 285 

tenderly minute in all that concerned Lord Falkland, should 
have omitted to mention such a striking and pathetic coin- 
cidence had it really occurred ". 

There is indeed abundant evidence of Clarendon's tender 
solicitude for his friend during these last months of his life. 
He notes with pain the deepening gloom in which he was 
enveloped, in consequence of events which he bitterly de- 
plored but was powerless to avert. " From the entrance 
into this unnatural war, his natural cheerfulness and vivacity 
grew clouded, and a kind of sadness and dejection of spirit 
stole upon him, which he had never been used to ; yet being 
one of those who believed that one battle would end all 
differences, and that there would be so great a victory on 
one side, that the other would be compelled to submit to 
any conditions from the victor (which supposition and con- 
clusion generally sunk into the minds of most men, and 
prevented the looking after many advantages, that might 
then have been laid hold of), he resisted those indispositions, 
et in luctu, bellum inter remedia erat. But after the King's 
return from Brentford, and the furious resolution of the two 
houses not to admit any treaty for peace, those indisposi- 
tions, which had before touched him, grew into a perfect 
habit of uncheerfulness ; and he, who had been so exactly 
unreserved and affable to all men, that his face and counten- 
ance was always present and vacant to his company, and 
held any cloudiness and less pleasantness of the visage, a 
kind of rudeness or incivility, became on a sudden, less 
communicable : and thence, very sad, pale, and exceedingly 
affected with the spleen. In his clothes and habit, which 
he had intended before always with more neatness, and 
industry, and expense, than is usual in so great a mind, he 
was not now only incurious, but too negligent ; and in his 
reception of suitors, and the necessary or casual addresses 
to his place, so quick, and sharp, and severe, that there 






286 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

wanted not some men, (who were strangers to his nature 
and disposition,) who believed him proud and imperious, 
from which no mortal man was ever more free. The 
truth is, that as he was of a most incomparable gentleness, 
application, and even demissiveness and submission to good, 
and worthy, and entire men, so he was naturally (which 
could not but be more evident in his place, which objected 
him to another conversation and intermixture than his own 
election had done) adversus malos injucundus ; and was so 
ill a dissembler of his dislike and disinclination to ill men, 
that it was not possible for such not to discern it. . . . 

"When there was any overture or hope of peace, he 
would be more erect and vigorous, and exceedingly solicitous 
to press anything which he thought might promote it ; and 
sitting among his friends, often, after a deep silence and 
frequent sighs, would, with a shrill and sad accent ingemi- 
nate the word Peace, Peace; and would passionately pro- 
fess, ' that the very agony of the war, and the view of the 
calamities and desolation the kingdom did and must endure, 
took his sleep from him, and would shortly break his heart '." 1 

No words could bring home to us more vividly the 
agony caused not to Falkland only but to hundreds of 
generous and high-minded patriots by the hideous spectacle 
they were compelled to witness. Small wonder that there 
were on both sides many who were eager to seize upon the 
faintest chance of peace. Among them the Secretary of 
State was ever foremost ; but his efforts to bring negotia- 
tions to a successful issue must form the subject of a separ- 
ate chapter. 

1 Hist., iv., 239, 240. 




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CHAPTER III 

PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 

THE winter brought no formal cessation of arms. 
While the King established himself at Oxford, and 
surrounded his headquarters with a girdle of garrisons, there 
was desultory fighting in the far North and the far West. 
But the real business of the winter was not war but 
diplomacy. From December, 1642, until April, 1643, 
negotiations between Oxford and London were carried on 
practically without intermission. At Oxford the King's 
Cabinet (to use a convenient but proleptic description) 
received an important accession of official strength. In 
the early spring of 1643 Hyde was at last persuaded to 
accept office as Chancellor of the Exchequer. According 
to Clarendon himself, the King's intention was to make 
Secretary Nicholas Master of the Wards, " and then [these 
were his Majesty's own words] I must make Ned Hyde 
Secretary of State for the truth is I can trust nobody else ". 1 
Hyde declined to come into office on the heels of 
Nicholas, but the death of Sir Charles Caesar, Master of 
the Rolls, gave the King the opportunity he had long 
desired. Sir John Culpepper had been promised the re- 
version of Caesar's office, and now claimed the fulfilment of 
it. "This," says Clarendon, "was no sooner declared, than 
the Lord Falkland [who was much more solicitous to have 

1 Hyde's account is exactly confirmed by an intercepted letter from 
Charles to the Queen. Firth, ap. D.N.B., s. v. Hyde. 

287 






288 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Mr. Hyde of the Council than he was himself for the honour] 
took an opportunity to tell the King that he had now 
a good opportunity to prefer Mr. Hyde." The King 
warmly concurred, and the office of Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer was offered to, and accepted by, Hyde. On 22nd 
February he was sworn of the Privy Council and knighted, 
and on 3rd March was admitted to office as Chancellor of the 
Exchequer. Of all the King's intimate counsellors Hyde 
was probably the most sympathetic and congenial. Unlike 
Culpepper and Falkland he saw eye to eye with Charles on 
the question which was primary and vital to them both — the 
government and services of the English Church, and there 
was a complete absence of friction in their personal relations. 
With Falkland it was obviously otherwise. He had ac- 
cepted office from a sheer sense of duty ; he laboured 
incessantly in the interests of the institution whose cause 
he had espoused, but for the King personally he felt 
neither reverence nor affection. It is plain, moreover, that 
he treated him with as little consideration as was com- 
patible with his own courteous bearing and the exigencies 
of his office. "Albeit," says Clarendon, 1 "he had the 
greatest compliance with the weakness and even the humour 
of other men, when there could be no suspicion of flattery, 
and the greatest address to inform and reform them : yet 
towards the King, who many times obstinately adhered to 
many conclusions which did not naturally result from good 
premisses, and did love to argue many things to which he 
would not so positively adhere, he did not practice that 
condescension ; but contradicted him with more bluntness, 
and by sharp sentences ". It can, therefore, cause no 
wonder that the King "cared less to confer with him in 
private" than Falkland's great wisdom rendered desirable. 
But, as Clarendon is careful to add, the King " had not a 

l Life, i., 105. 



PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 289 

better opinion of any man's sincerity or fidelity towards 
him ". To the King, however, it must have been an im- 
mense satisfaction to be able at last to draw the most 
trusted of his counsellors into the official circle. 

To the King's ministers, especially to those who, like 
Falkland, ardently longed for peace, the winter months of 
1642-43 must have been a period of alternating hope and 
despair. The country had as yet seen little of war, but it 
had seen enough to make it long for peace. In particular, 
the city of London, without whose loyal support Parliament 
would have been powerless in its contest with the King, was 
already beginning to feel the pinch of commercial depression, 
combined with the burden of war taxation. On 12th 
December the Common Council resolved to present peti- 
tions to the King and the Parliament respectively in favour 
of peace. The remnant of the House of Lords at West- 
minster was at one with the City. The lawyers in the 
House of Commons were not less eager than the merchants. 
It is plain that nothing but the indomitable resolution of 
Pym kept Parliament firm to its purpose. Pym was 
not averse to negotiation, so long as there was no sacrifice 
of the essential ends for the attainment of which he had 
embarked on war ; and he took care that there should be 
none. On 26th December the Commons agreed to open 
negotiations with the King, on the basis of the terms pro- 
posed to them by the Lords. About a month later they 
were formally laid before the King at Oxford. 

Meanwhile, a deputation from the City arrived at Oxford. 
Their reception was not encouraging : they were hooted in 
the streets, and received with scant ceremony by the King. 
Their proposals were not indeed such as to conciliate the 
Court. They amounted to a suggestion that the King 
should forthwith disband his army, and put himself at the 
absolute disposal of Parliament. The King's answer was in 

19 



29° FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

effect a haughty offer of pardon to sueh as would make 
unco d, t , onal submission. It is difficult to understand how 
such terms could have been proposed, for it is undeniable 
that the merchants were sincerely desirous of peace Nor 
was heir attitude due merely to the selfish interests of the 
wealthier citizens. On 3rd January a vast crowd of London 

with stT S ' "T th ° USand Str ° n »" besie ^ d P -'-«>ent 
with snmlar petitions. The home counties, Hertfordshire 

Essex and Bedford, did the same. The desire for peace 
was weU-mgh universal, but no man could suggest how it 
was to be attained. 

On 28th January Falkland had the satisfaction of for- 
ward,^ ,», Westminster a safe-couduct for the Parliamentary 

and the S ne° nerS ' f Feb ™ ary *** a ™ ed in °*<^ 

and the peace proposals were immediately laid before the 

King. The full text may be read in Rushworth's Collection 
or m Gardmer s Document The propositions afforded no 
possible bas,s for negotiation, still less for compromise The 
King was to disband his armies; to return to Parliament 
to leave "delinquents" to the judgment of PaZn t 
and a ,egal trial; to disarm the Papists; to compel the" 
to abjure their creed ; to assent to legislation for the 
education of the children of Papists by Protestants in the 
Poestant religion; to leave the Militia Settlement to 
Parhament, and to accept Parliamentary nominations to the 
high judical offices. In regard to the vital question rf he 
Church, Parliament demanded the Kinsr's assent t„ IT 
*™ Branch Bill, and a promise tha't he wo ,d p ^ 
such other bills for Church reform as Parliament after con 
sultat.on "with godly, religious and learned divines should 
present to him". Had the military situation of tl e Ki g 
been desperate, such propositions might conceivably havf 
obtained a hearing. But so far the balance of military 



1 P. 182. 



PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 291 

advantage lay decidedly with the King. Under these cir- 
cumstances to propose terms which involved the surrender of 
principles and persons dearest to the King was mere futility. 
The King's answer, 1 though not unconciliatory in tone was 
naturally firm. He expressed his willingness to assent to 
« any good act for the suppressing of Popery and for the firm 
settling of the Protestant religion now established by law, 
and suggested that a Bill should be framed for "the better 
preserving of the Book of Common Prayer from the scorn 
and violence of Brownists, Anabaptists, and other Sectaries 
with such clauses for the ease of tender consciences as his 
Majesty hath formerly offered ". Finally the King proposed 
a cessation of arms and "free trade for all his Majesty s 

subjects". _, 

This last point was hotly debated in both Houses. The 
Lords favoured a cessation ; the Commons desired to insist 
on disarmament. Eventually a compromise was reached, 
and Parliament resolved to ask for a cessation of arms 
limited in duration to twenty days. These « articles of ces- 
sation " were presented to the King on 1st March, and on 
the 6th the King's reply was communicated to Parliament. 
Neither proposal was satisfactory, but Parliament "being 
still carried on with a vehement desire of peace" sent 
further instructions to the Commissioners at Oxford on 
1 8th March. For a whole month negotiations continued at 
Oxford Almost daily communications passed between 
Falkland on the one side and the Parliamentary Commis- 
sioners the Earl of Northumberland, Sir William Armine, 
Sir John Holland, William Pierrepoint and Bulstrode White- 
locke on the other. Frequent instructions were also sent 
to the Commissioners from Westminster. The curious 
may still follow the daily course of the negotiation in 
Rushworth's collection of historical documents. Falkland 

1 Rushworth, v., 168. The answer is not printed in Gardiner's Docu- 
ments. 



292 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

played a leading part in it. His position made this in- 
evitable ; but it is not rash to surmise that his formal com- 
munications as Secretary of State were supplemented 
by personal intercourse with the Parliamentary Commis- 
sioners. Clarendon's account of the secret history of the 
" Treaty of Oxford," if we may accept it, leaves no room for 
doubt upon this point. " Some persons among them (the 
Commissioners) who were known to wish well to the King 
endeavoured underhand to bring it to pass. And they did 
therefore whilst they publicly pursued their instructions, 
and delivered and received papers upon their propositions pri- 
vately use all the means they could especially in conferences 
with the Lord Falkland and the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
that the King might be prevailed with in some degree to com- 
ply with their unreasonable demands." The correspondence 
of Sir Thomas Roe with Falkland points unmistakably in 
the same direction. He is writing not to the Secretary of 
State, but to one who was well known to the peace advo- 
cates on both sides as the most ardent among them. " If," 
he wrote on 19th March, "you can agree the cessation, 
which is the popular part, the articles will follow almost by 
necessity, and this rule only I will lay, that if you must or 
shall make war successfully, you must set peace in the first 
rank, you must show that she is vanished from you and 
your arms are only employed to rescue the beloved of all 
men." He wrote again on 6th April with even more 
passionate protestations. " If indignation could make a 
poet against nature, the passions of a troubled spirit may 
excuse any errors of a well-affected zeal. I cannot forbear 
to inform you that the last message of his. Majesty {i.e., the 
demand for the immediate surrender of the ships and forts) 
both utterly discomposed even all those who seriously 
pursued and grasped after the hopes of accommodation. 
They pretend to have no ground nor subject left them to 



PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 293 

continue their endeavours. There is another party who 
triumph and proclaim that it is you that decline the peace 
by refusing the cessation which, though I know it be in 
some points disadvantageous to his Majesty, yet, considering 
the popularity of such an expectation, I cannot conceive the 
inconveniences of equal weight to the general opinion which 
would have been gained to your part by yielding, which is 
often the true way to perfect victory." 

To these interesting letters Falkland replied on 18th 
April as follows : — 

"If my health were not so ill, with all my business to 
boot, I should not hope to be excused for being so slow in 
giving you thanks for two so great favours. I heartily wish 
we were able to make use of any good inclinations to us 
beyond sea, and perhaps they are the kinder because they 
find it safe to be so whilst we are as we are, that is, unable 
to take them at their words and make use of their kind- 
ness. . . . My desire of peace, and my opinion of the way 
to it agree wholly with yours, and I wish the second followed 
— but both sides must then contribute that the first might 
be obtained, and I might then have occasion to congratulate 
with the kingdom too. His Majesty hath commanded me 
to let you know he is very sensible of your present condition 
and he is sorry for nothing more than that his friends — 
especially so honest and deserving a man — should be in 
danger for being so, and he not able to protect them : but 
that if retiring yourself hither out of their power would 
stand with your occasions, he assures you you shall be very 
welcome ; but what to advise you if you stay I find he 
knows not, and I am sure I know as little." 1 

Good men both in London and Oxford were not merely 

1 Gardiner (C. W., i., 102, 103) prints Roe's letter from Had. MSS., but 
curiously he omits Falkland's still more interesting reply, for which cf. 
S. P. Dom., Car. I., vol. cccxcvii., No. 65. 



294 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

sighing but labouring for peace. But it was all to no pur- 
pose. The King insisted that his revenue, magazines, ships 
and forts should be immediately restored to him, and on 
14th April the Parliamentary Commissioners were recalled 
from Oxford. With so excellent a disposition on both sides, 
how came the negotiations at Oxford to fail ? The answer 
to this question has more than an immediate significance. 
Pym was doubtless as obstinate as the King ; but Pym dis- 
appeared from the stage before the end of the year, and still 
Charles proved unyielding. 

Clarendon's account makes it abundantly clear that the 
King did not give his entire confidence to his official ad- 
visers, to the devoted men without whose "joint advice" he 
had promised to take no important step. Behind the 
" cabinet " there were tne Princes and Digby, and behind 
both there was the Queen. The picture which Clarendon 
draws of the relations between Charles and Henrietta Maria 
is idyllic. " The King's affection to the Queen was of a 
very extraordinary alloy ; a composition of conscience and 
love and generosity and gratitude and all those noble affec- 
tions which raise the passions to the greatest height ; inso- 
much as he saw with her eyes and determined by her judg- 
ment." 1 But a domestic idyll may mean a political tragedy. 
When the Queen left England to labour for his cause abroad, 
the King had promised that " he would never make any 
peace but by her interposition and mediation that the king- 
dom might receive that blessing only from her. This pro- 
mise (of which his Majesty was too religious an observer) 
was the cause of his rejection or not entertaining their last 
overture." " Where the fault lay I judge not," says May ; 2 
but Whitelocke — himself one of the Parliamentary Com- 
missioners at Oxford — concurs with Clarendon. 3 At the 
same time he gives a favourable impression of the King's 

1 Life, i., 185. 2 Long Parliament, 278. 3 Memorials, 68. 



PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 295 

conduct during the negotiations. At all times it seems the 
Commissioners had access to him and were allowed " very- 
free debate with him ". He was generally attended in these 
conferences by Rupert, Lord Southampton, the Lord-Keeper 1 
and the Lord Chief Justice 2 besides the lords of his council. 
But these played a subordinate part. They never, says 
Whitelocke, "debated any matters with us, but gave their 
opinions to the King in those things which he demanded of 
them, and sometimes would put the King in mind of some 
particular things, but otherwise they did not speak at all." 
The King " manifested his great parts and abilities, strength 
of reason and quickness of apprehension with much patience 
in hearing what was objected against him. . . . His unhap- 
piness was that he had a better opinion of others' judg- 
ments than of his own." Among the "others," Rupert and 
the Queen, who had landed in Yorkshire in the middle of 
the negotiations, were unquestionably the most influential. 

It was not only with Parliament that the King was in 
treaty during the winter of 1642-43. Scotch Commissioners 
reached Oxford on 17th February — among them Lord 
Loudoun and Mr. Alexander Henderson — Lord Lanark 3 
arrived later. From a letter of Baillie's 4 it would appear 
that "their life was verie uncomfortable all the tyme at 
Oxford. . . . None durst them any sensible favour. In the 
streets, and from windows they were continually reviled by 
all sorts of people." The King's treatment of the Scots 
seems to have been the height of impolicy, and strangely 
lacking even in common courtesy. "Before any answer 
was given twenty dayes would passe ; for his Majesty had 
no leasure. When they did in 24 houres give in their 
replyes, other 20 dayes would passe before the Secretaries, 
Nicolas, Falkland, Hyde, Ashburnham, Lanerick could have 
leasure to answer : so the year should have passed in vaine, 

1 Littleton. 2 Bankes. 3 Baillie's "Lanerick," afterwards Duke of 
Hamilton. i Letters and Journals, ii., 66. 



296 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

had they not been recalled." There is some ground per- 
haps for Baillie's comment uttered more in sorrow than in 
anger: "This policie was, lyke the rest of our unhappy 
malcontent's wisdom, extreamlie foolish; for it was verie 
much for the King's ends to have given to our Commis- 
sioners, farr better words, and a more pleasant countenance ". 
On the other hand there was at least an element of truth 
in the common rumour reported by Wood : " it is thought 
that there is some double dealinge on the Scott's side in 
this businesse". At Oxford, in 1643, as elsewhere and 
always, the one supreme object of the Scots was to force 
upon the King and the people of England an ecclesiastical 
system which they detested. On this point no compromise 
or accommodation was possible until the King's will was 
broken and his plight was desperate. 

This negotiation throws an interesting light upon the 
relations which at this time subsisted between the King and 
his council — notably Falkland and Hyde. Lord Loudoun 
and his colleagues presented to the King "a long paper" 
containing "a bitter infection against Episcopacy and de- 
manding the establishment of the Presbyterian system ". 
The King it appears 1 was anxious to take this opportunity 
of replying in detail to the theological argument and thus 
stopping at the outset any attempt to tamper with "his 
affection and zeal for the Church". "Many of the lords," 
says Clarendon, "were of opinion that a short answer would 
be best, that should contain nothing but a rejection of the 
proposition, without giving any reason ; no man seeming to 
concur with his Majesty ; with which he was not satisfied ; 
and replied with some sharpness upon what had been said. 
Upon which the Lord Falkland replied, having been before 
of that mind, desiring that no reasons might be given ; and 
upon that occasion answered many of those reasons the 

1 Clarendon, Life, i., 190 et seq. 



PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 297 

King had urged, as not valid to support the subject, with a 
little quickness of wit (as his notions were always sharp, and 
expressed with notable vivacity,) which made the King 
warmer than he used to be ; reproaching all who were of 
that mind with want of affection for the Church ; and de- 
claring, that he would have the substance of what he had 
said, or of the like nature, digested into his answer : with 
which reprehension all sat very silent, having never under- 
gone the like before." The King turned for support to 
Hyde. The latter poured oil upon the troubled waters. 
" He did think that it was very fit that his Majesty's answer 
to this paper should contain a very severe and sharp repre- 
hension for their presumption," but he hinted that the theo- 
logical arguments had better be reserved for a Synod. The 
King was " so well pleased that he vouchsafed to make some 
kind of excuse for the passion he had spoken with," and 
cordially agreed with the Chancellor that " this was not the 
season nor the occasion in which those arguments which he 
had used were to be insisted on". 

The Scotch mission was thus as barren in results as 
that of the English Parliament. Diplomacy had exhausted 
its resources : it was now left to the soldiers to cut the 
Gordian knot. But before passing to an account of Falk- 
land's last campaign, it is necessary to say something of 
an episode which was neither diplomacy nor war. 

" Waller's Plot " is still involved in some obscurity — 
partly perhaps owing to the genius of Clarendon, who is 
never less reliable than when with professions of transparent 
candour he declares, as in this case, his intention to tell all 
he knows, has heard or can " reasonably conjecture ". Claren- 
don would have us believe that there were two distinct de- 
signs on foot, one connected with the issue of a Commission 
of Array to Sir Nicholas Crisp, the other a purely pacific 
design of which Waller was the mainspring. Later research 



298 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

has made it clear that the two movements were closely 
associated, or rather parts of one whole. 

With Edmund Waller we have already made acquaint- 
ance at Great Tew as one of the most richly gifted of the 
poets with whom Falkland loved to surround himself during 
the earlier phase of his literary enthusiasm. Possessed of 
ample means, a cousin of Hampden's, intimate with the 
King's confidential advisers, a brilliant Parliamentary orator, 
Waller had now attained to a considerable political position. 
In the Long Parliament he was regarded " as a person of 
very entire affections to the King's service, and to the estab- 
lished government of Church and State," and his entire 
independence of the Court gave him the better opportunities 
of service. On the outbreak of the war he remained, " with 
the King's approbation," at Westminster, and there became 
one of the recognised leaders of the " peace party ". His 
friendship with Falkland further marked him out as an 
obvious intermediary between the friends of peace at Oxford 
and Westminster. Through his brother-in-law, Nathaniel 
Tompkins, he was, at the same time, in close touch with the 
city. The "plot" was probably hatched during the peace 
negotiations at Oxford. The object was to secure the Tower, 
the magazines, and strongholds of the city, to open the gates 
to a Royalist army, and to seize the persons of Pym, Hamp- 
den and other leaders of the extreme left. The King issued 
a Commission of Array under the Great Seal to Sir Nicholas 
Crisp and others, authorising them to raise a force in the 
city. This commission, though signed at Oxford on 16th 
March, was not despatched to London until 19th May, when 
it was secretly conveyed by Lady D' Aubigny and Alexander 
Hampden — a cousin of the member for Bucks. 

Meanwhile, suspicions were aroused in the Commons. A 
letter from Lord Dover to his wife, bidding her leave London 
with her children, fell into the hands of the Committee of 



PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 299 

Safety. Pym's secret agents, moreover, were never greatly 
at fault, and in this case they found a useful spy in the person 
of a certain Roe, a clerk to Tompkins. Hassell, a King's 
messenger who passed constantly backwards and forwards 
between London and Oxford, was also guilty of indiscre- 
tions. Suddenly, on 31st May, Waller and Tompkins were 
arrested. Tompkins and his associate Chaloner — a leading 
tradesman in the city — were brought before a military tribunal 
presided over by Manchester, were convicted and hanged. 
Waller had powerful friends, a persuasive tongue and a long 
purse. To one or all of these he owed his life. After little 
more than a year's imprisonment he offered to compound 
for his offences by a ;£ 1,000 fine. The composition was 
accepted and Waller was banished. The same influences 
sufficed to procure his recall after a few years of exile. He 
obtained office under Cromwell and sat complacently in 
the post-Restoration Parliaments until his death at Hall 
Barn on the eve of the Revolution of 1688. 

Two points remain to be noticed : the political effects of 
" Waller's Plot," and the question of Falkland's complicity. 
The discovery of the " plot " was of course fatal to any 
lingering hopes of peace. Pym's obduracy was thrice justi- 
fied, and he was not the man to neglect any advantage 
which might accrue from an incident so opportune. A 
public thanksgiving for the deliverance of Parliament was 
ordained ; a vow or covenant was drawn up and eagerly 
taken by members of both Houses and the public at large ; x 
and the Lords were at last induced to assent to the meeting 
of an assembly of divines charged with the duty of devising 
a new government liturgy, and creed for the Established 
Church. 

Of more immediate interest to the biographer is the 
question of Falkland's complicity in Waller's designs. 
1 Rushworth, v., 325. 



300 Fx^LKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

" Plot " has an invidious and question-begging connotation 
and had better in this connection be avoided. One thing 
must be constantly borne in mind. There had been no 
cessation of arms. The military and diplomatic games 
were being played concurrently in adjacent fields. Waller's 
design was an ingenious though dangerous attempt to com- 
bine and confuse them. He and his associates played for 
high stakes, and failure would probably involve a dis- 
honourable death. But was there anything in the game of 
which any honourable man need be ashamed ? The case 
against Waller has generally been allowed to go by default, 
and his own poltroonery on the detection of the design 
deprives him of any possible claim to sympathy. But for 
the sake of his associates it is necessary to insist that both 
technically and actually King and Parliament were at war, 
and that each therefore was free to take any means for the 
discomfiture of the other, despite the concurrent negotia- 
tions for peace. 

That Falkland was among these associates it is impossible 
for the candid inquirer to doubt. Whether he was cognisant 
of all the details no man can say. " He conducted," says 
Gardiner, " the secret correspondence with the London 
partakers in Waller's plot, but it is impossible now to say 
whether he did so as a mere matter of duty, or whether he 
considered that all was fair against enemies who were also 
rebels." * The case is not quite fairly put. Would Pym and 
Hampden, we may ask, have hesitated to embark upon 
similar negotiations with — say — Alderman Nixon of Oxford 
for the discomfiture of an enemy who was also a King? 
It is quite certain that they would not. According to 
Clarendon Falkland's intervention, whether private or official, 
was confined to the peace negotiation with the city men. 
" Mr. Tomkins sometimes writ to the Lord Falkland (for 

l D.N.B. 



PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 301 

Mr. Waller out of the cautiousness of his own nature never 
writ word), and by messengers signified to him ' that the 
number of those who desired peace and abhorred the pro- 
ceedings of both houses was very considerable ; and that 
they resolved by refusing to contribute to the war, and to 
submit to their ordinances, to declare and manifest them- 
selves in that manner that the violent party in the city 
should not have credit enough to hinder any accomodation '. 
And the Lord Falkland always returned answer ' that they 
should expedite those expedients as soon as might be, for 
that delays made the war more difficult to be restrained '." 
If Clarendon may be trusted, Falkland's part was one to 
which no possible exception can be taken. Even if he were 
privy to the whole design, it may well be argued that it 
would leave no slur upon an unblemished reputation. 

That Falkland was becoming enervated by the atmos- 
phere of intrigue in which he now spent his days we may 
reasonably conjecture. That his health and spirits were alike 
giving way under the strain of incessant anxiety is clear 
alike from Clarendon's specific statement, and from the hint 
contained in his own letter to Roe. 1 

Passionate as was his longing for peace, it must have 
been with something of relief that he realised at length that 
the diplomatic game was over, and that peace could now 
be won only by the sword. 

1 Supra, p. 63. 



CHAPTER IV 

FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 

THE campaign of 1643 presents to us in miniature a 
picture of the whole Civil War. At first sight the 
prospect is bewildering and chaotic ; fighting more or less 
desultory in every corner of the land, apparently uninspired 
by purpose or objective ; a town taken here ; a garrison 
surprised there ; success in one district counterbalanced by 
failure in another. But on a closer scrutiny a design of 
high strategical importance is unmistakably revealed ; the 
factors making for success or failure are plainly visible. 

London is the King's objective ; its capture is to be 
secured by a triple advance. Newcastle, having cleared 
Yorkshire of rebels, is to pierce through Cromwell's force in 
Lincolnshire, and advance by the Great North road on 
the capital. Grenville and Hopton, having made all secure 
in Cornwall and Devon, are to come up from the West, 
and keeping south of the Thames to march through Surrey 
and Kent on Southwark. Newcastle and Hopton having 
joined hands to the east of London, the King will clinch 
matters by an advance on the West, while the Welshmen 
will cross the Severn and keep everything safe between 
Severn and Thames. The plan was conceived with admir- 
able strategical skill, 1 but it was wrecked by the operation 

1 That the King was responsible for the scheme will surprise no one who 
recalls the Duke of Wellington's high opinion of Charles I. as a soldier. 

302 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 303 

of four unforeseen factors. The command of the sea ; the 
unwillingness of the local levies to leave home ; the dogged 
resolution of Essex ; the germinating genius of Cromwell ; 
these enabled the Parliamentary cause to weather the 
stormiest sea to which it was exposed. The diplomacy of 
Vane and Pym was doubtless a powerful factor in the back- 
ground. Baillie is justified in taking credit for the Scots in 
coming to the assistance of a ruined cause. But before the 
Solemn League and Covenant was signed, the tide was 
already on the turn. " Surely," says Baillie, " it was a great 
act of faith in God and huge courage and unheard of com- 
passion that moved our nation to hazard their own peace and 
venture their lives and all for to save a people irrecoverably 
ruined both in their own and all the world's eyes." 1 Baillie 
expressed the view of the situation which any reasonable 
and candid person would have taken in the autumn of 1643. 
But looking back it is not difficult to perceive that the 
ultimate victory of Parliament was already implicit in the 
unshaken tenacity of Gloucester, Plymouth and Hull ; in 
the revealed military weakness of the local levies ; in the 
new organisation adopted as yet only by a single regiment 
in the Eastern Counties, but soon to be extended to the 
whole Parliamentary army ; above all, in the genius of the 
man by whom that organisation was devised. 

Detailed description of military tactics, even the accurate 
diagnosis of the operation of strategical forces are beyond 
the scope of the present work. 2 The merest outline must 
suffice. 

During the late autumn of 1642 and the early spring of 
1643 things went well for the King. Hopton cleared 
Cornwall, but could not induce his men to follow him into 

1 "., 99- 

2 For this chapter generally cf. Clarendon, Hist., vol. vii., and Gardiner, 
C. W., i., chaps, vii.-x. 



304 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

" England," and he turned back therefore to raise a less 
parochial force. Newcastle was on the whole successful in 
the North, but could make little impression on the clothing 
towns of the West Riding and none on Hull. By the end of 
February most of the Midland towns were in the King's 
hands. The Queen, whose splendid pluck redeemed her 
political folly, landed at Bridlington on 22nd February, with 
much-needed supplies of money and arms. These reached 
Oxford safely under convoy on 1 3th May, and the Queen 
herself followed in July. Meanwhile, the general strategical 
movement on London was resumed, and seemed by the 
middle of the summer to be within measurable distance of 
accomplishment. On 30th June Newcastle's " Papists " won 
a great victory over the Fairfaxes, near Bradford, and the re- 
sistance of the West Riding was at an end. But two obstacles 
barred their march on London. Hull, succoured from the 
sea, still held out in spite of the treachery of the Hothams ; 
and while Hull was untaken the squires and yeomen and 
peasants of the North refused to come South. In the West 
things went better. Plymouth, like Hull, and for the same 
reason, remained intact ; but either Hopton was more per- 
suasive than Newcastle, or the Cornishmen were less canny 
than the Tykes. Hopton's victory at Stratton on 16th May 
left him free to advance into Devon ; ail Devonshire, except 
the big towns, came in for the King, and in the course of 
the summer all the towns, except Dartmouth and Plymouth, 
followed suit. In June Hopton joined hands with Prince 
Maurice and Lord Hertford at Chard, and pushed on into 
Somerset and Wilts. Sir William Waller was waiting for 
him at Bath, but the victories at Lansdowne (5th July) and 
on Roundway Down, near Devizes, a week later, annihilated 
Waller's force, and cleared the way to Oxford and London. 
Bristol, the second city of the kingdom, was still holding 
out, but on 26th July it surrendered to Rupert ; Carnarvon 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 305 

cleared Dorsetshire in August, and with the exception of 
some isolated seaports the whole of the West was solid for 
the King. In Dorsetshire, Lyme Regis and Poole; in 
Devonshire, Dartmouth and Plymouth, were still held for 
Parliament, but from Mount's Bay to the Mersey the con- 
tinuity of the King's country was broken only by the 
obstinate courage of the citizens of Gloucester. The " Par- 
liament side" was indeed "running down the brae," as 
Baillie picturesquely but accurately puts it. The news of 
the surrender of Bristol came to London, says May " like a 
sentence of death ". " The Parliament," he adds, " was at 
that time so far sunk both in strength and reputation, and 
so much forsaken by those who followed fortune that 
nothing but an extraordinary providence could make it 
again emergent." 1 

And if the prospect was black in the West, the Midlands 
and the North, there was nothing in the operations in 
the Thames valley to relieve the prevalent gloom . Essex 
had taken Reading, which was ill-defended, at the end of 
April, but he had not the means, or possibly the persistence, 
to push through to Oxford. A second attempt in June 
was attended by a disastrous accident. He got as far as 
Thame, but his troops were disorganised by Rupert's bril- 
liant sallies from Oxford, and all the heart was taken out 
of the campaign by Hampden's death. Mortally wounded 
in a cavalry skirmish on Chalgrove field (18th June), he 
died at Thame on 24th June. The death of John Hamp- 
den caused, says Clarendon, "as great a consternation of 
all that party as if their whole army had been defeated 
or cast off". Inferior in statesmanlike grasp and political 
adroitness to Pym ; inferior as a soldier to Fairfax or 
Cromwell, Hampden left behind him a memory which even 
his bitterest opponents made no attempt to sully. Claren- 

1 Long Parliament, 341. 



306 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

don never quite forgave him for his influence on Falkland, 

but even he acknowledges his " flowing courtesy to all men," 

and confesses that "his carriage throughout this agitation 

was with that rare temper and modesty, that they who 

watched him narrowly to find some advantage against his 

person . . . were compelled to give him a just testimony". 1 

But although the King's success in the field was beyond 

all expectation, although considerable progress had already 

been made towards the realisation of his great design, his 

position was not sound. The devotion of his followers 

— notably the Roman Catholics, with Lord Worcester at 

their head— put at his disposal considerable resources : the 

Universities, as we have seen, did their part nobly ; the 

Queen left no stone unturned to serve her husband ; but 

Parliament commanded all the permanent sources of supply. 

They could not only draw on the commercial wealth of 

England, but all that money could buy they could import 

freely from the Continent. They never lacked, therefore, 

arms or ammunition. The King was short of both. Better 

still, they could pay their troops regularly, and Cromwell 

taught them the importance of doing so. In the earlier 

stages of the war they had to contend with the same local 

difficulties which proved so fatal to the King's superior 

strategy. " The custom of the sojours here is woeful : they 

cannot bide from home a month together on any condition." 

So Baillie - wrote as late as November, 1644. But already 

the nucleus of a professional army had been formed in the 

Eastern Counties, and the extension of the same principle 

to the whole of the Parliamentary forces was destined by a 

few effective blows to bring the first Civil War to a speedy 

end. 

But the New Model was still in the future ; the King's 
worst foes in 1643 were those of his own household. 

1 Hist., iv., 84. 2 ii., 241. 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 307 

Between the proud English nobles and the insolent Palatine 
princes it was terribly difficult to keep the peace. Hardly- 
less difficult was it to reconcile the conflicting policies 
of statesmen like Falkland and Hyde and irresponsible 
courtiers like Jermyn and Digby. Small wonder that, 
standing daily at the King's elbow, Falkland grew sadder 
and graver as the weeks went by. The personal quarrels 
and jealousies, only kept in abeyance by the influence of 
the King, broke out into open rupture when he was not 
on the spot. Sir Philip Warwick hints that the resistance 
of Hull was not the sole reason for Newcastle's refusal to 
come South. Warwick had been sent by the King to per- 
suade Newcastle to do so, but "found him," he writes, "very 
averse to this, and perceived that he apprehended nothing 
more than to be joined to the King's army, or to serve 
under Prince Rupert ; for he designed himself to be the 
man that should turn the scale, and to be a self-subsisting 
and distinct army wherever he was "} Warwick may have 
been wrong, but his words throw an interesting light on 
the mutual relations of the Royalist generals. But the King 
had worse difficulties to contend with nearer home. After 
the taking of Bristol the long-standing dispute between 
Hertford and the Prince came to a head. Hertford as 
Lord Lieutenant deeply resented Rupert's action in signing 
the articles of capitulation on his own sole authority, and 
in order to mark his sense of the indignity the Marquis 
nominated Hopton to the governorship of the city without 
consulting Rupert. Rupert thereupon wrote to the King 
to desire " that he would bestow the government of that city, 
reduced by him, upon himself". 2 The King, " not suspecting 
any dispute," immediately assented, but upon learning the 
facts determined to go down to Bristol himself. " The 

1 Warwick, Memoirs, 243. 

2 Gardiner (C. W.) and Clarendon. 



308 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

settlement of the port," says Clarendon, " which was of 
infinite importance to the King in point of trade and his 
customs and with reference to Ireland, and the applying 
the army to some new enterprise without loss of time, could 
not be done without his Majesty's presence." He took 
with him the Duke of Richmond, Falkland, Culpepper and 
Hyde. The King spent a night at Malmesbury on the 
way, while Falkland and Culpepper were Hyde's guests at 
Pirton. It was probably the last occasion on which the 
three friends so long associated found themselves together, 
and alone. The King and his counsellors reached Bristol 
on 1st August, and the immediate business was despatched 
by making Hopton Lieutenant Governor under Prince 
Rupert and raising him shortly afterwards to the peerage. 
Hertford was carried off to Oxford by the King. 

During the brief stay at Bristol there was an incident 
which caused further friction between Hyde and Culpepper. 
Hyde rightly deemed it pertinent to his office to inquire 
into the condition of the trade of Bristol, and the revenue 
likely to be derived therefrom. To his mortification he 
found his inquiries anticipated by Ashburnham, who as 
Paymaster of the Army had been instigated to a like in- 
quiry by Culpepper. This " the Chancellor took very heavily, 
and the Lord Falkland, out of his friendship to him more 
tenderly, and expostulated it with the King with some 
warmth; and more passionately with Sir John Culpepper 
and Mr. Ashburnham, as a violation of the friendship they 
professed to the Chancellor, and an invasion of his office, 
which no man bears easily ". The quarrel was patched up ; 
the offenders " made some weak excuses of incogitance and 
inadvertence," and the King himself "was pleased to take 
notice of it to the Chancellor, with many gracious expres- 
sions "} The incident deserves notice only as a further illus- 

1 Life, i., 199. 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 309 

tration of the personal jealousies by which the unhappy 
King was distracted, and the valuable assistance which he 
received from Falkland in the ceaseless work of mediation. 

Before the King left Bristol a much more important 
matter claimed his attention. He had to decide a strategical 
question of the first importance. Gloucester was still un- 
taken. Was it better, neglecting Gloucester, to lead his 
armies flushed with an unbroken career of victory straight 
upon the capital, or was it essential to take Gloucester first ? 
It was generally supposed that it would mean at the worst 
only a few days' delay. "The surrender of Bristol," wrote 
May, " must needs strike a great terror and sad amazement 
into Gloucester which now seemed to stand forlorn in the 
midst of a large country possessed by their victorious 
enemies." 1 Fiennes declared that " they would be hanged if 
Gloucester could hold out two days if the enemy came before 
it ". It was a difficult and, as it proved, a momentous de- 
cision which the King had to take. Political considerations 
undoubtedly pointed in one direction, strategical perhaps in 
the other. An immediate advance on London might pos- 
sibly have ended the war. The peace party at Westminster 
was strong though not dominant, and mobs were calling for 
the blood of "that dog Pym and the traitors that were 
against the Peace ". Peers were deserting daily and find- 
ing their way to Oxford and Bristol, though only to meet 
with a reception which was injudiciously chilling. At Ox- 
ford, still more in London, the opinion was strongly in 
favour of a march on the capital " to take the advantage of 
those distractions ". 

Military considerations on the other hand told strongly 
in the opposite direction. Victorious as the King had been, 
he had now at his actual disposal only " a miserable army 
lessened exceedingly by the losses it sustained before 

1 P. 332. 



310 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

Bristol " ; J the Cornishmen would only march West, and 
the Welshmen would not march East until Gloucester fell. 
A few days would probably suffice for the job ; not a single 
blot would then remain upon the fair scutcheon of the West, 
and the King would march at the head of a united and 
enthusiastic army to receive the submission of the depressed 
and distracted capital. There was no denying the potency 
of this reasoning, but the scale was actually turned, ac- 
cording to Clarendon, by a letter from Colonel Massey, who 
was in command of the garrison of Gloucester, declaring 
that "if the King came himself with his army and sum- 
moned it, he would not hold it against him". 

The momentous decision was taken. The King marched 
to Gloucester, and on ioth August, "out of his tender com- 
passion for the city," summoned it to surrender. The 
answer was unexpectedly defiant. The citizens declared 
themselves " wholly bound to obey the commands of his 
Majesty signified by both houses of parliament," and their 
resolution " by God's help to keep this city accordingly ". 
The King, therefore, was compelled to sit down before the 
city, and for twenty-six days it was closely invested. 2 
Except for a flying visit of four days to Oxford, rendered 
necessary by the prevailing quarrels at Court, the King was 
lodged throughout the siege with his two sons at Matson. 
Falkland, of course, was with him, and his old friend 
Chillingworth was also in the camp. The theological 
arguments of Great Tew were resumed by night " in a 
smoky hut," but neither disputant was an idle spectator of 
the siege. The King's army had no scientific siege-train, 
and Chillingworth, therefore, suggested the invention of 
some engines after the manner of the Roman testudines cum 
pluteis in order to storm the place. 3 

Falkland, if we may trust the gossip of Aubrey, had 

1 Claiendon. 2 For siege c.f. F. A. Hyett's Gloucester — a work which 
has appeared too late for me to utilise. 3 Tulloch. 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 311 

a special share of responsibility for the King's decision to 
take Gloucester. " In the civill warrs," writes Aubrey, "his 
advice was very unlucky to his Majestie in persuading him 
... to sitt downe before Glocester, which was so bravely 
defended by that incomparably vigilant governor Coll. 
Massey and the diligent and careful soldiers and citizens 
(men and women) that it so broke and weakned the King's 
army that 'twas ye procatractique cause of his ruine — vide 
Mr. Hobbes. After this, all the King's matters went worse 
and worse." 1 

Aubrey's unsupported testimony is entitled to no 
credence, but be the truth of his story what it may, Falk- 
land exhibited such a feverish anxiety to prove his military 
courage as to draw down upon himself a just reproof from 
Hyde. Falkland's labours in the cause of peace were of 
course notorious ; his '' ingeminations " Peace, Peace, may 
have been overheard by unfriendly ears. There was a 
malicious rumour " that \ he was so much enamoured on 
peace that he would have been glad that the King 
should have bought it at any price ". Clarendon charac- 
terises it as " senseless scandal," and " a most unreasonable 
calumny". But the gossip reaching Falkland's ears ob- 
viously made some impression on nerves that were over- 
wrought, and provided a man notoriously prone to rashness 
in the field with " an excuse for the daringness of his spirit ". 
" At the leaguer before Gloucester," says Clarendon, " he 
delighted to visit the trenches and nearest approaches and 
to discover what the enemy did." His friends "passion- 
ately reprehended him for exposing his person unnecessarily 
to danger ... as being so much beside the duty of his place 
that it might be understood against it ". To this Falkland 
would reply merrily, " that his office could not take away 
the privileges of his age ; and that a secretary in war might 
1 Aubrey, Letters, i., 151, ed. Clark. 



312 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

be present at the greatest secret of danger " ; but withal 
alleged seriously " that it concerned him to be more active 
in enterprises of hazard than other men ; that all might 
see, that his impatiency for peace proceeded not from pusil- 
lanimity, or fear to adventure his own person." 1 

But no courage, however unprofessional, on the part of 
Falkland, and no investment, however scientific, could shake 
the resolution of the hardly pressed Puritans of Gloucester, 
and help from outside was not long withheld. Pym was 
alive to the importance of the siege. Peace discussions 
were put impatiently aside. An appeal was made to the 
patriotism of the London prentices. The Puritan preachers 
vied with Pym in their exhortations. The train-bands re- 
sponded nobly. On 26th August Essex set out from Coin- 
brook and found himself at the head of 15,000 men. 

The march of the London prentices under Essex to the 
relief of Gloucester is the finest military achievement in the 
Civil War. Marching through Bucks they had to give a 
wide berth to Oxford on the left, and, harassed though not 
delayed by Wilmot's horse, they swept round by Aynhoe, 
Adderbury andChipping-NortontoStow-on-the-Wold, which 
they reached on 4th September. The present Great West- 
ern line from Chipping-Norton to Cheltenham follows closely 
the march of Essex. The high and unenclosed table-land of 
the Cotswolds ought to have provided splendid ground for 
Rupert's cavalry, and he engaged Essex's force again and 
again. But the spirit of the Londoners was unquenchable, 
and steadily they pushed Rupert back. After two days' de- 
sultory fighting they were in sight of their goal. 

Meanwhile the beleaguered city was reduced to the direst 
straits; on 5th September only three barrels of powder were 
left ; but by that time Essex was at Prestbury, above Chel- 
tenham. There he learnt to his amazement that the siege 

1 iv., 241. 




Bof.«n^» j Essex's march to and from Gloucester shown thus — — — — — 

neTerence {_ The Kmg's and Falkland's march... 



.do do~- 



NOTE. — -SIEGE OF GLOUCESTER BROKEN UT SEPT. 5TII; KING AT SUDELY CASTLE, SETT. 7TH-12TH ; 

PERSHORE, I2TH ; EVESHAM, 14TH-16TH ; SNOU'SHILL, 161H ; ALVESCOT, 17 111 : WANTAGE, iSTH ; 

NEWBURY, 19TH; CATTLE OF NEWBURY AM) DEATH OF FALKLAND, SEPT. 20TH 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 313 

was over, and that the King's army had gone. Essex gave 
the prentices two days' rest at Cheltenham, and on 8th Sep- 
tember marched at their head in triumph into Gloucester. 
The relief of Gloucester was the turning-point of the war. 
The resolution of its citizens, the dogged pertinacity of 
the London prentices, the masterly leadership of Essex 
saved the Parliamentary cause. 

But the situation was still perilous. Why the King did 
not with his whole force meet the wayworn Londoners 
above Cheltenham it is difficult for a layman to surmise. 
But the critics agree that his strategy at this juncture showed 
extraordinary judgment and skill. Rupert's cavalry could 
not stop Essex on the Cotswolds, and the King therefore 
decided to break up his camp and to make a dash for 
London, or at least block the return of its wearied defenders. 
Falkland's last march had begun. 

Leaving the plain of Gloucester on the 5th, the King 
climbed up to Painswick and thence marched along the ridge 
to Sudeley. After resting at Sudeley Castle he stayed nearly 
a week awaiting the return of Essex. Essex, however, knew 
better than to return through the wasted country by which 
he had come, and marched North to Tewkesbury as though 
for an attack on Worcester. The King, watching him closely 
moved on to Pershore and thence to Evesham, still heading 
him off from the South. But while the King was at Eves- 
ham Essex suddenly turned South (15th September), and 
made all speed for London, marching by way of Ciren- 
cester and Hungerford. At Cirencester he surprised a small 
Royalist garrison and also picked up " a great quantity 
of provisions prepared by the King's commissaries for 
the army before Gloucester, and . . . sottishly left for the 
relief of the enemy." 1 The King, meanwhile, realising 
that Essex had given him the slip, had no option but to 

1 Clarendon. 



314 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

go in pursuit of him. He had the " inside " station and 
could march almost due South. Climbing the Cotswolds by 
the lovely village of Snowshill (16th September) he crossed 
Essex's late tracks at Stow-on-the-Wold, and marching " with 
matchless industry " by way of Alvescot and Faringdon 
reached Wantage on 18th September. Essex was then at 
Hungerford, some fifteen miles to S.S.W. A cavalry skir- 
mish on the 1 8th on Aldbourn Chase headed Essex off from 
Newbury, and enabled the King to win the race to Newbury 
and so straddle the London road. 

The King was now in a strong position and could 
afford to act on the defensive : Essex had to break through 
or starve. 

On the morning of the 20th the battle was joined. The 
tactics of Essex, well seconded by Skippon, were admirable. 
The King on the other hand was compelled to quit his 
strong defensive position "by the precipitate courage of some 
young officers who had good commands and who unhappily 
always undervalued the courage of the enemy "- 1 Rupert's 
cavalry displayed their usual courage and dash, but Essex' 
infantry was immovable. Even Clarendon is roused by 
their conduct at Newbury to something like enthusiasm for 
his opponents. " The London trained-bands . . . behaved 
themselves to wonder ; and were in truth the preservation 
of that army that day. For they stood as a bulwark and 
rampire to defend the rest." Throughout a long day the 
battle raged hotly all along the line. When night fell no 
real advantage had been won by either side. The King 
was still in Newbury ; Essex was no nearer London. 
Every one supposed that the fight would be renewed on 
the morrow. But when morning broke Essex learned to 
his astonishment that the King had withdrawn his troops. 
The road to the capital was open. The King threw a 

1 Clarendon. 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 315 

garrison into Donnington Castle, and a few days later was 
back at Oxford. 

What had induced the King's retreat ? The ostensible 
reason was lack of ammunition, but it may be that he 
realised that with all their impetuous courage his Cavaliers 
were no match for the London train-bands, who with 
dogged resolution had followed Essex from London to 
Gloucester, and from Gloucester to Newbury. His losses 
too were heavy — heavy as regards numbers, still heavier as 
regards quality — for he left dead on the field the gallant 
Carnarvon, Sunderland — " a lord of great fortune, tender 
years and an early judgment," and — more grievous still — 
his own Secretary of State, Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland. 1 
" In this battle of Newbury the Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer lost the joy and comfort of his life." So, with 
pathetic simplicity, Clarendon wrote of his friend six-and- 
twenty years after the event. 

Falkland had, as we have seen, been with the King 
throughout the siege of Gloucester, and from Gloucester 
had marched with him to Newbury. On the night before 
the battle the King stayed at the house of the Mayor, Mr. 
Gabriel Coxe ; Falkland slept " at the house of a Mr. 
Head in Cheap Street, and early next morning, by his 
express wish, the sacrament was administered to him by 
Dr. Twisse," the Puritan rector of Newbury, " in the 
presence of Mr. Head and his whole . family who attended 
at Lord Falkland's especial request. The room which 
tradition points out as being the scene of Falkland's last 
communion is in a house now known as No. 1 Falkland 
Place." 2 In the morning he was, says Clarendon, " very 
cheerful ". Like many a bookish man Falkland always 

1 Ludlow, Memoirs, i., 56, the sole reference to Falkland in Ludlow. 

2 Walter Money, First and Second Battles of Newbury : all the local 
details in regard to Falkland's last hours I owe to this valuable book. 



316 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

longed for action, and here, as at Edgehill, he was found 
in the thickest of the fray. He had no official command, 
but attached himself as a volunteer to Sir John Byron's 
regiment and " put himself into the first rank ". " My 
brigade of horse," writes Byron, " was to have the van, and 
about five in the morning I had orders to march towards a 
little hill full of enclosures which the enemy . . . had pos- 
sessed himself of and had brought up two small field pieces 
and was bringing up more, whereby they would both have 
secured their march on Reading . . . and withal so annoyed 
our army which was drawn up in the bottom, where the 
King himself was, that it would have been impossible for 
us to have kept the ground. The hill was full of enclosures 
and extremely difficult for horse service." So indeed it 
proved, and the difficulty was enhanced by the fact men- 
tioned by Clarendon that " the enemy had lined the hedges 
on both sides with musqueteers ". This advance of the 
King's right wing was, on local testimony, " a movement 
absolutely necessary," but it cost the King dear. " Byron's 
advance," writes Mr. Money, " appears to have been over 
the ground between the boundary line of the parishes of 
Newbury and Enborne (defined by a bank and hedge . . .) 
and the old road called ' Dark Lane ' which formerly ran 
from near Enborne Farm obliquely over the fields below 
the Wash to the Enborne Road which it entered by En- 
borne-gate Farm, another road (Guyer's Lane) leading from 
this point to the Kennet." In this cavalry charge Falkland 
fell : but his death is best described in the words of Byron 
who witnessed it. " The service grew so hot, that in a very 
short time, of twelve ensigns that marched up with my 
Lord Gerard's regiment, eleven were brought off the field 
hurt, and Ned Villiers shot through the shoulder. Upon 
this a confusion was heard among the foot, calling, horse ! 
horse ! whereupon I advanced with those two regiments 



,s,v ' ■-■> 




a- S 

tH < 

i. w 

>. w 

X 2 






o s 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 317 

I had, and commanded them to halt while I went to view 
the ground, and to see what way there was to that place 
where the enemy's foot was drawn up, which I found to 
be enclosed with a high quick hedge and no passage into 
it, but by a narrow gap through which but one horse at a 
time could go and that not without difficulty. My Lord 
of Falkland did me the honour to ride in my troop this day, 
and I would needs go along with him, the enemy had beat 
our foot out of the close, and was drawne up near the hedge ; 
I went to view, and as I was giving orders for making the 
gapp wide enough, my horse was shott in the throat with a 
musket bullet and his bit broken in his mouth so that I was 
forced to call for another horse, in the meanwhile my Lord 
Falkland (more gallantly than advisedly) spurred his horse 
through the gapp, where both he and his horse were im- 
mediately killed." x 

" The correctness of the tradition," writes Mr. Money, 
" that Falkland fell on the spot until recently indicated by a 
poplar tree in front of the farm-house known as ' Falkland 
Farm ' is extremely doubtful ; he certainly fell as the royal 
cavalry were advancing towards the body of the Parliamen- 
tarians, who were endeavouring to gain the Heath, but at 
this early period of the fight Essex had not secured a foot- 
ing on the Wash. The hedges on both sides of ' Dark 
Lane ' would perfectly accord in position with Byron's 
narrative and with Clarendon's description." 

The dead lay all night where they had fallen ; to the 
dying ghostly comfort was administered by the saintly 
Jeremy Taylor. On the morrow search was made for the 
missing. The Prince accordingly wrote to Essex: "We 
desire to know from the Earl of Essex whether he have the 
Viscount Falkland, Captain Bertue and Sergeant Major 
Wilshire prisoners, or whether he have their dead bodies, 
1 Ap. Money, 52. 



3 i8 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

and if he have that liberty may be granted to their servants 
to fetch them away. Given under my hand at Newbery, 
this 2 ist September, 1643. Rupert." 

Falkland was not among the prisoners, nor could his 
body be found. 

" The next day," says Aubrey, " when they went to bury 
the dead, they could not find his Lordship's body, it was 
stript, trod-upon, and mangled ; so there was one that had 
wayted on him in his chamber would undertake to know it 
from all other bodyes, by a certaine mole his lordship had 
in his neck, and by that marke did find it." l Falkland's 
body, when discovered, was "placed across the back of 
one of the royal chargers, and mournfully escorted down 
the hill by a detachment of the King's own troop and 
gently laid in the old Town Hall ". Thence, according 
to one version, 2 it was removed to the Bear Inn on the 
Oxford road and was placed in a shell preparatory to its 
final removal. On the following day it was carried re- 
verently to Oxford, and one day later it reached its final 
resting-place in the church of Great Tew. The precise 
spot of sepulture is unmarked, owing, as is generally said, to 
fears of desecration. Such fears were in reality causeless, 
though they may have worked upon the overwrought mind 
of the mourning widow. But the parish register records the 
facts : — 

THE 23RD DAY OF SEPTEMBER, A.D. 1643, THE 

RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR LUCIUS CARY KNIGHT 

LORD VISCOUNT OF FALKLAND 

AND LORD OF THE MANOR OF GREAT TEW 

WAS BURIED HERE. 

In connection with Falkland's death there remains one 
office which unfortunately no biographer can decline. Brief 

1 Aubrey, i., 152. 

2 The whole question is carefully discussed by Mr. Money, op. at., whose 
account I have closely followed. 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 319 

reference has already been made to the slur cast upon Falk- 
land's memory by the oft-quoted story which we owe to 
Whitelocke. Whitelocke obviously wrote without malice, 
as the full text of the passage proves : " The lord Falkland, 
secretary of state, in the morning of the fight called for a 
clean shirt, and being asked the reason of it, answered, that 
if he were slain in the battle they should not find his body 
in foul linen. Being dissuaded by his friends to go into 
the fight, as having no call to it, and being no military officer, 
he said he was weary of the times, and forsaw much misery 
to his own country, and did believe he should be out of it 
ere night, and could not be persuaded to the contrary, but 
would enter into the battle, and was there slain. His 
death was much lamented by all that knew him, or heard 
of him ; being a gentleman of great parts, ingenuity, and 
honour, courteous and just to all, and a passionate pro- 
moter of all endeavours of peace betwixt the king and 
parliament." l 

In Aubrey's account, on the other hand, there is the 
unmistakable touch of the malevolent gossip. " At the 
fight of Newbury my Lord Falkland being there and having 
nothing to do, to chardge ; as the 2 armies were engaging 
rode in like a madman (as he was) between them and was, 
(as he needs must be) shott. Some that were your super- 
fine discoursing politicians and fine gent, would needs have 
the reason of this mad action of throwing away his life so, 
to be his discontent for the unfortunate advice given to his 
master " 2 in regard to the siege of Gloucester. Aubrey, 
however, with the true information always at the command 
of the professional scandal-monger, attributes the suicide, as 
we have seen, 3 to Falkland's infatuation for Mrs. Moray and 
his grief at her death. 

1 Whitelocke, Memorials, 73, 74. 

2 Brief Lives, ii., 315. 3 Cf. supra, p. 16. 



320 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

It is so far creditable to historical writers that White- 1 
locke's version has been generally preferred to Aubrey's. 1 
Thus Dr. James Wellwood, writing in the first year of the 
eighteenth century, declares : "It was the dismal prospect | 
he had of this war that moved that accomplished gentleman I 
the Lord Falkland to throw away his life, rather than 1 
be a witness of the miseries that were coming upon the I 
nation." T 

Wellwood, of course, was merely repeating gossip and I 
carries no critical weight. Mr. Gardiner is in a totally \ 
different position, and it is confessedly disquieting to find } 
him, with all his critical acumen, accepting as substantially | 
accurate the gossip of Whitelocke. " At Gloucester," he j 
writes, " Falkland had courted death in vain. The longed 
for hour had struck at last." At Newbury "he flung 
away his life by an act which can hardly be distinguished 
from suicide ". 2 Sir Philip Warwick gives no hint of suicide. 
" Here was extinguisht," he writes, " that fine flame which 
made splendid that excellent soul of the lord Faulkland . . . 
whose courage carried him too far in this engagement." 3 
Nor does the friend whose love for him was " wonderful, 
passing the love of woman," with whom " from his age of 
twenty years he had lived in an entire friendship," and 
who " never spake of him afterwards, but with a love and 
a grief which still raised some commotion in him ". Claren- 
don, indeed, frankly admits that " he died as much of the 
time as of the bullet : for, from the beginning of the war he 
contracted so deep a sadness and melancholy that his life 
was not pleasant to him ; and sure he was too weary of it." 
He was, moreover, " naturally inquisitive after danger," and 
peculiarly sensitive, it would seem, to the imputation that 
his aversion to war arose from personal cowardice. Curi- 
ously enough, on the day after his death, Hyde received at 

1 Memoirs, 44. 2 C. W., i., 213, 218. 3 Memoirs, 263. 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 321 

Oxford a belated letter from Falkland written when the 
army was leaving Gloucester. Hyde had written to remon- 
strate with him on his rash conduct in the face of the enemy, 
and to point out "how much he suffered in his reputation 
with all discreet men by engaging himself unnecessarily in 
all places of danger, and that it was not the office of ... a 
Secretary of State to visit the trenches as he usually did ; 
and conjured him out of the conscience of his duty to the 
King, and to free his friends from those continual uneasy 
apprehensions not to engage his person to those dangers 
which were not incumbent on him." 1 

Falkland's reply, if correctly summarised by Clarendon, 
has a peculiar importance in relation to the theory of suicide. 
" His answer was that the trenches were now at an end ; there 
would be no more danger there : that his case was different 
from other men's ; that he was so much taken notice of for an 
impatient desire of peace, that it was necessary that he should 
likewise make it appear, that it was not out of fear of the 
utmost hazard of war : he said some melancholie things of 
the time ; and concluded, that in few days they should come 
to a battle, the issue whereof, he hoped, would put an end to 
the misery of the kingdom." 

The key to the situation, and the most convincing answer 
which can now be given to the damaging insinuations care- 
lessly made and still more carelessly accepted, lie in the last 
words. There was every reason to hope that Essex would 
be caught on his way back to London, that his train-bands 
would be scattered, and that the capital denuded of defenders 
and clamorous for peace would open its gates to the King. 
Such a consummation devoutly wished for by the friends of 
peace was by no means improbable. But in any case it 
is essential, once more, to insist that the situation must not 
be diagnosed in the light of subsequent events. The slim 

1 Life, i., 202. 
21 



322 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

diplomacy of Vane had been rewarded by the acceptance 
of an amended covenant, but the military results of the 
Scotch alliance was still in the future : so was the prowess 
of the New Model and the genius of Cromwell. So far 
the King's career of victory had been virtually broken only 
by the resistance of Gloucester. Falkland's eager hope 
that one more battle would decide the issue, would " put an 
end to the misery of the kingdom," was not without justifi- 
cation. The seaports alone sustained the Parliamentary 
cause, and contemporaries may well be forgiven for under- 
estimating the significance of a fact which modern critics 
have been so tardy to realise. Here then was the reason, if 
one may accept Clarendon's version of his friend's letter, for 
Falkland's return to something of his old gaiety of spirit 
on the morning of Newbury fight. The approximation of 
phrase in Whitelocke's and Clarendon's account is note- 
worthy. It points to a possible misreport of a genuine 
conversation. According to Whitelocke's report of the 
spoken word, Falkland declared that he "foresaw much 
misery to his own country, and did believe he should be out 
of it ere night ". According to Clarendon's account of the 
written word, he expressed his hope that the issue of the 
battle " would put an end to the misery of the kingdom ". 
From both it is clear that it was the misery of the country 
which was gnawing at his vitals, and destroying his peace. 
That the fight at Newbury must be a outrance any man 
who accurately diagnosed the strategical situation would sur- 
mise ; that many would fall before night was certain. To 
ask for the administration of the Holy Communion was the 
natural precaution of a deeply religious man ; to ask for 
clean linen the impulse of a gentleman. To twist either 
request into an intelligent anticipation of self-sought death 
is absurdly calumnious. Given the theory of suicide, the 
facts will fit : but they are equally susceptible of another 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 323 

and more generous interpretation. So we may leave the 
vexed question of Falkland's death. 



For a century and a half Falkland remained without 
material memorial of any kind. The place of his birth, of his 
death and of his burial alike ignored him. From the last two 
the reproach is now removed. Thanks to the initiative of Mr. 
Walter Money and the late Lord Carnarvon, a worthy me- 
morial was in 1878 erected at Newbury within a few yards of 
the spot on which he is supposed to have fallen. The sides 
of the monument, which stands on an eminence about a 
mile and a half to the south of the town, bear inscriptions 
which were chosen and composed with such marked felicity 
that they may be reproduced in full : — 

East Side 

KOINH TAP TA 2HMATA 

AIAONTE2 IAIA TON ArHPflN 

EnAINON EAAMBANON KAI TON 

TA*ON EniSHMOTATON OTK 

EN n KEINTAI MAAAON AAAA EN 

fl H AOHA ATTflN AEIMNH2T02 

KATAAEinETAI ANAPftN 

TAP Eni*ANflN nA5A TH 

TA<*>02. 

Thucy., ii., 43. 

West Side 

IVSTVM BELLVM QVIBVS 
NECESSARIVM ET PIA ARMA 

QVIBVS NVLLA NISI IN 
ARMIS RELINQVITVR SPES. 

Liv., ix., i. 



324 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

North Side 

IN MEMORY OF THOSE 

WHO, ON THE 20TH SEPTEMBER, 1643 

FELL FIGHTING IN THE ARMY OF KING CHARLES I. 

ON THE FIELD OF NEWBURY, AND ESPECIALLY OF 

LUCIUS CARY, VISCOUNT FALKLAND 

WHO DIED HERE IN THE 32ND YEAR OF HIS AGE. 

THIS MONUMENT IS SET UP BY THOSE TO WHOM 

THE MAJESTY OF THE CROWN AND 

THE LIBERTIES OF THEIR COUNTRY ARE DEAR. 

South Side 

THE BLOOD OF MAN IS WELL SHED 

FOR OUR FAMILY, 

FOR OUR FRIENDS, FOR OUR GOD, 

FOR OUR COUNTRY, FOR OUR KIND J 

THE REST IS VANITY, 

THE REST IS CRIME. 

Burke. 

Lord Carnarvon, himself distinguished by scholarly states- 
manship and a certain superiority to party ties, was fitly 
chosen to perform the ceremony of unveiling, and pronounced 
a singularly graceful panegyric upon Falkland. " Lord 
Falkland," he said, "combined no insignificant qualities. 
He was a gentleman, a scholar, a statesman, a reformer of 
political abuses, and yet a lover of the Crown and the Consti- 
tution under which he lived. Living in troubled and pain- 
ful times he reconciled, as far as it was given to man to 
reconcile, the conflicting duties of his age, and dying, he 
died without fear and without reproach." l 

Great Tew has followed the example of Newbury, and 
since 1885 a mural tablet affixed to the walls of the church 
has recalled the memory of its most famous lord. It is right 
that those who have deserved well of the commonwealth 
should be thus materially commemorated. But no great 
1 Times, 10th September, 1878. 



FALKLAND'S LAST CAMPAIGN 325 

Englishman ever stood less in need of such memorial than 
Lucius Gary, Viscount Falkland. Within a few decades of 
his death an unfading wreath was placed upon his tomb by 
the piety of a life-long friend. Clarendon immortalised his 
fame and memory in some of the most graceful and most 
melodious passages which English prose can boast. 

"Thus fell," he wrote, "that incomparable young man, 
in the four and thirtieth year of his age, having so much 
despatched the business of life, that the oldest rarely attain 
to that immense knowledge, and the youngest enter not into 
the world with more innocence ; whosoever leads such a life, 
needs not care upon how short warning it be taken from 
him." L 

1 Clarendon, iv., 242. 



CHAPTER V 

EPILOGUE AND APPRECIATION 

LORD FALKLAND left to mourn his loss a devoted 
and now desolated wife, three young sons, troops of 
friends, and, without distinction of creed or party, all that 
was noblest and best in the nation at large. Of his sons 
the youngest Laurence or Lorenzo survived him only a few 
years and died at Great Tew, 2nd November, 1645. The 
eldest Lucius, who succeeded his father as third Viscount, died 
at Montpelier in 1649 an< ^ was buried in a nameless grave, 
at Great Tew. Henry, the second son, succeeded his eldest 
brother as fourth Viscount in 1649. He represented 
Arundell in the House of Commons, and served as Lord- 
Lieutenant for the County of Oxford. Something of the 
wildness erroneously attributed to his father may with more 
accuracy be predicated of him. He is said by Anthony 
Wood (" As I have been informed by Sir J. H. 1 who married 
his widow ") to have sold for a horse and mare the noble 
library of books collected by his father and hallowed by a 
hundred literary associations. Not that he was himself 
devoid of literary instincts or of wit ; for he is commemor- 
ated by Horace Walpole as the author of a comedy, The 
Marriage Night, and is credited by the same writer with 
an excellenty'<?# d'esprit. On taking his seat in the House 
of Commons he was reproached for wishing to become a 
Member of Parliament " before he had sown his wild oats ". 
Upon which he instantly retorted : " Then am I come to 

1 Sir James Hayes, Secretary to Prince Rupert. 
326 



EPILOGUE AND APPRECIATION 327 

the properest place, where are so many geese to pick them 
up". 1 Like his father and brothers Henry Cary failed to 
reach middle age, and in 1663 he was succeeded by his son 
Anthony (born in 1656). Anthony is described as a young 
man of high promise. Treasurer and Paymaster to the 
Navy under Charles II. and James II. he managed to 
retain the favour of William III. Unfortunately, however, 
he fell a victim to small-pox in 1694, an d thus, before the 
close of the century, the direct line of Lucius Cary became 
extinct. Anthony was succeeded in the peerage by his 
cousin Lucius Henry, the grandson of Patrick, a younger 
son of the first Viscount. 

Of Letice Viscountess Falkland we have little direct 
knowledge except that which we derive from the pious 
pages of John Duncon.' 2 But all that he says as to her 
excellent qualities as wife and mother, and the entire con- 
fidence and affection with which she was regarded by her 
husband is amply confirmed by the terms of Falkland's 
will :— 3 

" i) honorandi viri dni) Lucij Carie nuper vicecomitis 
Falkland de R. In the name of God amen. 

" I S r Lucius Carie K* Viscount of ffalkland beinge in 
perfect health and memory thanks be given to God doe 
make and ordeyne this my last will and testament in 
writinge, and first I commend my soul to God and my 
body to the earth to bee buried in such decent manner as 
my executrix hereafter named shall thinck fit and concern- 
inge my personall estate whereof I shall dye possessed I 
doe hereby give and bequeathe the same unto my dearly 
beloved wife Lettice viscountess of ffalkland whome I make 
Executrix of this my last will and testament and doe will 
and devise that my said wife shall have the education of 

1 Walpole, Royal and Noble Authors, 221. 2 C/. supra, p. 17. 

3 Printed by Mrs. Sturge Henderson, op. cit. 



328 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

my three sones Lucius Henry and Lorenzo and shall bear 
the chardge of the Education of my twoe younger sones 
Henry and Lorenzo. In witness that this is my will I have 
signed sealed and published the same the twelveth day of 
June in the 18th yeare of the raigne of our sovraigne Lord 
Charles by the grace of God King of England, Scotland 
France and Ireland defender of the Faith etc. Anno domini 
1642. 

" (Signed) FALKLAND. 

" Signed sealed and published in the presence of 

"Robert Stanier. 
" Thos. Hinton. 

" Probatum apud Oxon cora ven 11 viro Willmo Mericke 
legu doctore Comissario etc. vicesimo die mensis Octobris 
Anno dm 1643. Juramento honorande femine due Leticie 
Vicecomitisse ffalkland Relicte dei defuncti et excis etc. de 
bene etc. iurat." 

After the death of him " whom she loved more than all 
things of this world " Lady Falkland devoted herself, during 
the brief remnant of her life, to the care of her young sons, 
and to works of religion, charity, and mercy. She succoured 
the poor, tended the sick, and even carried the spirit of 
forgiveness so far as to send relief to the enemy's soldiers 
" when there were some store of them taken prisoner by the 
King's soldiers". Duncon describes in the language of 
simple and sincere piety her life and conduct after a series 
of crushing blows had fallen upon her : — 

" Her proficiency and progress (in the things of the Spirit) 
I shall account from that time, when her prosperity began 
to abate, when Her dear Lord, and most beloved Husband, 
that he might be like Zebulon (a student helping the Lord 
against the mighty, Judges v. 14) went from his Library to 
the Camp ; from his Book and Pen, to his Sword and Spear : 



EPILOGUE AND APPRECIATION 329 

and the consequent of that, an inevitable necessity, that she 
must now be divorced from him, for a while, whom she 
loved more than all the things of this world ; this was a sad 
beginning : but that totall divorce, which, soon after, death 
made between him and her; that he should be taken away 
by an untimely death too, this was a most sore affliction to 
her: . . . And this heavy affliction which God sent upon 
her, she interpreted for a loud call from heaven, to a further 
proficiency in piety and virtue. Her first and grand employ- 
ment was, to read and understand, and then (to the utmost 
of her strength) to practise our most blessed Savior's Ser- 
mon upon the Mount. . . . And her mercifulness was none 
of those virtues which she could at all conceal from us ; 
much of her estate (we saw) given yearly to those of her 
kindred, which were capable of Charity from her : And some 
of her neer neighbours, who were very old, and not able to 
work ; or very young, and not fit for work, were wholly main- 
tained by her : To other poor children she contributed much, 
both for their spiritual and their temporal wel-being ; by erect- 
ing a Schole for them, where they were to be taught both to 
read and to work: much care she took that no man, or woman, 
or child should want employment; that their own hands might, 
bring them in a competent subsistence ; and accounted that 
the best contrivement of her estate, which set most poor 
people on work ; for if it were to their profit, she little re- 
garded her own detriment in it. . . . And for the poor at 
home, and for strangers at the dore, she was very charitable 
in feeding the hungry, and refreshing the faint and weak ; 
and for clothing the naked, in some extremities you should 
see this Lady herself goe up and down the house, and beg 
garments from her servants backs (whom she requited soon 
after with new) that the poor might not go naked or cold 
from her dore. . . . And when it was objected that many 
idle and wicked people were by this course of charity, re- 



330 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

lieved at her house, her answer was; I know not their hearts, 
and in their outward carriage and speech, they all appear to me 
good and virtuous ; and I had rather relieve five unworthy 
Vagrants, than that one member of Christ sJiould goe empty 
away. 

" . . . But beyond all, her mercifulness towards the sick 
was most laudable : her provision of Antidotes against in- 
fection, and of Cordials, and other several sorts of Physick 
for such of her neighbors as should need them, amounted 
yearly to very considerable sums : And though in distribut- 
ing such medicinal provisions, her hand was very open, yet 
it was close enough in applying them, her skill (indeed) was 
more then ordinary, and her wariness too. . . . When any of 
the poor neighbors were sick, she had a constant care, that 
they should neither want such relief, nor such attendance as 
their weak condition called for, and (if need were) she hired 
nurses to serve them : And her own frequent visiting of the 
poorest Cottagers, and her ready service to them, on their 
sick bed, argued as great humility as mercifulness in her : 
yet the Books of spiritual exhortations she carried in her 
hand to these sick persons, declared a further design she 
had therein, of promoting them towards heaven, by reading 
to them, and by adminstring words of holy counsel to 
them. ... And from this Sermon of our blessed Savior 
she learned that duty of Praier ; and her cheif practise there- 
in, she could not conceal from us neither, which was, as 
follows. First, she spent some hours every day in her 
private devotions and meditations ; and these were called 
by those of her family her busy hours. . . . Then her 
Maids came into her Chamber early every morning, and 
She passed about an hour with them ; In praying, and 
catechising, and instructing them : To these secret and 
private praiers, the publik Morning and Evening praiers of 
the Church, before dinner, and supper; and another form 




LETTICE, WIFE OF LUCIUS, SECOND VISCOUNT FALKLAND 

FROM A PICTURE UY JANSSKN IN THE POSSESSION OF VISCOUNT FALKLAND 



EPILOGUE AND APPRECIATION 331 

(together with reading Scriptures, and singing Psalms) be- 
fore bedtime, were daily and constantly added. . . . And 
now in the very last stage of her Christian race, she growes 
so exact, that all time seems tedious to her, which tends not 
to Heaven ; and thereupon she now resolves to get loose 
from the multitude of her earthy employments ; and pro- 
vides to remove from her stately mansion, to a little house 
neer adjoyning, and in that house and garden, with a book, 
and a wheel, and a maid or two, to retire herself from worldly 
businesse, and unnecessary visits, and to spend her whole 
time : and she took as great delight in projecting this 
humiliation and privacy, as others do, in being advanced 
to publick honours, and state employments." 

Thus touchingly and quaintly does Duncon tell the story 
of Lady Falkland's widowed life. The ordeal was not 
prolonged. The death of her beloved son Lorenzo in 1645 
crushed to the earth a spirit already broken. A journey to 
London undertaken in the depth of the winter, 1645-46, 
brought on a severe chill. On her return she was like to 
have died at Oxford, but just managed to reach her home 
at Great Tew. There she passed away — a victim to con- 
sumption — on St. Matthias' Day, 1646, at the age of thirty- 
five, and there, on 29th February, she was buried. To say 
that Letice Falkland was worthy of the chivalrous knight 
who loved her and married her for herself alone is epitaph 
as honourable as woman can desire. 

Of Falkland himself little more need be said. The fore- 
going pages have been written in vain if they do not de- 
lineate Falkland as he appeared to his contemporaries and 
as he reveals himself to us by writing, speech and action- 
The splendid eulogy of his friend — modelled as Clarendon 
confesses on Tacitus's famous portrait of Agricola — was 
certain to provoke criticism and to suggest detraction. 
Falkland has escaped neither. Reference has already been 



332 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

made to Horace Walpole's malignity, and to the depreciatory 
fashion which he set. Thus while Walpole himself attri- 
butes to Falkland " much debility of mind," Macaulay de- 
rides his political instability, and Sanford writes of his 
" morbidly sensitive disposition " and declares that " want 
of balance of judgment was the defect in Falkland's 
character ". Gardiner, with all his admiration for Falkland's 
splendid qualities of heart and mind, writes contemptuously 
of his political opinions and achievements, while Forster does 
not hesitate to describe him as " far more of an apostate 
than Strafford, for his heart was really with the Parliament 
from the first which Strafford's never was, and never to the 
end did he sincerely embrace the cause with which his 
gallant and mournful death has eternally connected him ". 

How far do these judgments accord with the facts of 
Falkland's career as disclosed in the foregoing pages ? To 
the party politician "apostacy" is the worst of political 
crimes ; but with what justice can it be charged against 
Falkland ? He was at once a genuine reformer and a genuine 
conservative. Abuses he abhorred ; change for its own 
sake he detested. "Where it is not necessary to change, 
it is necessary not to change." This was the quintessence 
of Falkland's political creed, and from the outset to the close 
of his career he was consistently faithful to the principle it 
embodies. So long as it was a question of the destruction 
of the machinery of Stuart despotism Falkland was the 
most ardent of reformers. With Strafford and Laud he 
had no sympathy, and no man denounced with greater vehe- 
mence the principles which lay at the root of the ship- 
money judgment ; but for the annihilation of the ancient 
constitution in Church and State, for the virtual efface- 
ment of the Monarchy, and the substitution of Presbyterian- 
ism for Episcopacy Falkland was not prepared. For the 
first kw months of the Long Parliament Falkland acted 



EPILOGUE AND APPRECIATION 333 

whole-heartedly with Hampden and Pym. The time came 
when it was obvious that they were resolved to go farther 
than he could follow. Is it the part of a weak man or a 
strong man to say : " Thus far, but no farther " ? Is it the 
act of an apostate to decline to follow his companions over 
the brink of a precipice? Falkland desired the destruction 
of tyranny in Church and State ; he stood for an ordered 
freedom in things of the mind, of the soul and of the body 
politic. So long as Pym and Hampden were striving for 
the destruction of the machinery of "Thorough," and de- 
vising safeguards against its reconstruction Falkland stood 
by their side, and strenuously seconded their efforts ; when 
they in their turn threatened, as he believed, the cause of 
liberty, he withstood Pym and Hampden as he had previ- 
ously withstood Strafford and Laud. 

Lord Beaconsfield in a characteristically oriental pas- 
sage hails Falkland as the proto-martyr of Toryism. But 
his historical judgments are as uncritical as they are acute. 1 

There is, however, no modern writer who has interpreted 
with finer discrimination the principles of Falkland, or vin- 
dicated more amply and more conclusively his policy and 
aim, than the first Lord Lytton. In an essay contributed 
forty years ago to the Quarterly Revieiv he wrote : " Falk- 
land, from the first to the last, was a lover of Liberty, but 
Liberty as her image would present itself to the mind of a 
scholar and the heart of a gentleman. It is no proof of 
apostacy from the cause of Liberty if he thought that a 
time had come when Liberty was safer on the whole with 
King Charles than with 'King Pym'." But did Falkland 
possess any constructive ability? Mr. Goldwin Smith 
derides his claim : " Constitutional Monarchy, as Falkland 

i" Are not the traditions of the Tory party the noblest pedigree in the 
world. Are not its illustrations that glorious martyrology, that opens with 
the name of Falkland, and closes with the name of Canning ? "—Endymion, 



334 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

rightly judged, was the highest attainable ideal for England, 
at any rate in that day. Of attaining that ideal, of doing 
anything considerable towards its attainment or towards its 
defence against the powers of absolutist reaction whose 
triumph would have rendered its attainment for ever impos- 
sible he was no more capable than he was of performing the 
labours of Hercules ". 1 Gardiner admits that he knew what 
he did not want, but denies that he knew what he did want. 
But is this criticism sound ? Lord Lytton by anticipation 
answered both Mr. Goldwin Smith and Mr. Gardiner : 
" The objects Falkland desired to attain were a Monarchy 
divested of all pretensions to absolutism and a Church purified 
from all sympathies with papacy — excluded from all penal 
jurisdiction in civil affairs. In fine, a Monarchy without a 
Strafford, and a Church without a Laud." 2 

Pym, with rare prescience, fixed upon the principle 
of a responsible executive — " Counsellors whom parliament 
had cause to confide in " — as the ultimate solution of the 
constitutional problem of his day. But, as we have seen, 
the problem of the day was not exclusively constitutional ; 
it was complicated by an ecclesiastical factor, equally diffi- 
cult and equally insistent. Had the issue been simple, and 
had the times been normal ; had revolution not threatened 
in Church as well as State, Falkland might have voted with 
the majority on the Grand Remonstrance. But the Remon- 
strance was not an academic resolution ; it was the gage of 
battle, the trumpet-call to civil war. The question which 
Falkland, and Hyde, and the " Moderates " had to ask them- 
selves was this : " If I vote for the Remonstrance, shall I 
not put to the hazard of the sword all the advantages ob- 

1 Lectures and Essays (privately printed at Toronto), p. 220. 

2 Q. R., vol. 108 (i860), p. 538 (since reprinted in Prose Works). Hardly 
less perfect though much less elaborate is the appreciation of the Rev. W. 
Hudson Shaw to whose lecture on Lucius Cary, Lord Falkland (Philadelphia, 
1896), I have already acknowledged my obligations. Cf. Preface. 



EPILOGUE AND APPRECIATION 335 

i tained, all the reforms achieved during the last twelve months 
ig I of strenuous toil?" Pym and Hampden were prepared to 
ts take the risk ; Hyde and Falkland were not. It is custom- 
* ary to assert that Pym's ideas, though obscured by the 
! - success of Cromwell, and temporarily rejected at the Res- 
e toration, obtained triumphant and permanent vindication in 
t i the Revolution of 1688. And, in so far as the Revolution was 
. I the avenue to the establishment of constitutional monarchy 
i and to the development of the Cabinet system the claim on 
: Pym's behalf is justified. But the Revolution was a triumph 
for Anglicanism not less than for Constitutionalism. Pym's 
! victory in 1642 would probably have meant the establish- 
i ment of Presbyterianism and the effacement of the mon- 
j archy. Had Pym, at that time, propounded a scheme for 
the supersession of the monarch instead of the destruction 
J of the monarchy ; for the enlargement of the borders of the 
Anglican establishment instead of the substitution of Pres- 
byter for Priest, Falkland might still have been found at 
Pym's side. But Falkland, though he cared little for the 
person of the monarch, was devoted to the principle of 
monarchy ; though he loved not the Laudian bishops, he 
dreaded the intellectual intolerance of the extremer Puritan. 
He would give no vote, therefore, which would endanger 
the monarchy or precipitate a Puritan tyranny. And with 
Falkland lay the secret of the future. Pym's principles ob- 
tained partial vindication in the eighteenth century ; Falk- 
land's completer triumph was postponed until the nineteenth. 
Lord Lytton's claim on his behalf cannot be lightly put 
aside. " Could Falkland look from his repose on England 
as England is now, would not Falkland say, ' This is what I 
sought to make my country ! This is the throne which I 
would have reconciled to Parliamentary freedom ; this is 
the Church that I would have purified from ecclesiastical 
domination over secular affairs and intolerant persecution of 



336 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

rival sects. To make an England such as I see now, I op- 
posed the framers of the Grand Remonstrance and the 
Nineteen Propositions ; and England as seen now is the 
vindication of my policy and the refutation of Pym's.' " 

While much has been written in depreciation of Falkland's 
political career, his personal character is unassailed and needs 
no defence. The tributes paid to his high intellectual en- 
dowments and to his perfect integrity of heart and conduct, 
alike by contemporaries and moderns, are singularly un- 
grudging and unanimous. Against the statesman who re- 
fused to imitate his rival Pym in the employment of spies, 
and who refused to conform to universal practice by the 
opening of private correspondence, the worst that has been 
said is that he was too nice and scrupulous for his work. 
Against the man who passed through court and camp, un- 
blemished in the midst of corruption, and virtuous in the 
midst of vice, not an innuendo (save by Aubrey) has been 
breathed. 

Among contemporaries the tribute of the faithful Triplet 
is naturally the most intimate. 1 Clarendon was the alter 
ego of Falkland's political and intellectual life, but Triplet 
shared his home. The latter's testimony to his genuine 
piety, to his conviction that " in religion too careful and too 
curious an inquiry could not be made" has already been 
quoted ; 2 but space must here be found for two extracts 
which throw light upon the home life at Great Tew : — ■ 

1 " There is no family now in being to which I owe more true service 
than to your lordship's. ... It is one of the greatest comforts I have in this 
calamitous life, to remember that I had the honour to be so neare him : and 
a reproach, which I cannot clear myself of, to have been at the same time so 
neare in conversation, and yet so far removed from him in those Excellencies 
whereby he was the envy of this age, and will be the wonder of the next 
... he being the dearest and the truest Friend ... I ever had the happi- 
ness to meet with." — Triplet, Dedication to Henry, Lord Falkland. 

2 Cf. supra, p. 2i. 



EPILOGUE AND APPRECIATION 337 

" While others studied the heraldry of horses, of doggs, 
or at the best their owne, he though not inferior to his 
neighbours in descent or honour, knowing how much more 
glorious it is to be the first then the last of a noble family 
(blood without vertue making vice more conspicuous) was 
so far from relying upon that empty title, that he seemed 
ipse suos genuisse par elites, to have begotten his ancestors, 
and to have given them a more illustrious life then he 
received from them. Though there were so much true worth 
treasured up in him, as well divided had been able to set 
up a hundred pretenders, yet so much modesty withall that 
the hearing of anything was more pleasing to him than one 
tittle of his owne praise." 

And again : — 

"His answers," says Triplet, "were quick and suddain, 
but such as might very well seem to have been meditated. 
In short his abilities were such as though he needed no 
supplies of industry, yet his industry such as though he 
had no parts at all. How often have I heard him pitty 
those hawking gentlemen, who in unseasonable weather for 
their sports had betrayed them to keep house, without a 
worse exercise within doores, could not have told how to 
have spent their time, and all because they were such 
strangers to such good companions, with whom he was so 
familiar, such as neither cloy nor weary any with whom 
they converse, such company as Erasmus so much extolleth 
. . . Though his courage were as great as his wit and 
learning (and that is expression high enough) his valour 
so undaunted and dreadlesse, as his great fall witnest, in 
that fatal haile that made more orphans then his children ; 
yet to do an ill or an uncivill thing he was an arrant 
coward.'' 

In such passages there is a note even more intimate than 
that of Clarendon, and Falkland's writings and speeches 

22 



338 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

entirely confirm the testimony of his friends. They are dis- 
tinguished by a sweet and gentle gravity, a playful wit, a 
large charity, and a sustained elevation of thought and lan- 
guage. When keen invective was demanded, as in the great 
speech on ship-money, it was not lacking, but for the most 
part speeches, poems and discourses are suffused with a 
spirit of gentle charity — the charity of one who, bold in 
action, was " an arrant coward to do an ill or uncivil thing ". 

Modern writers have on these points wisely accepted 
without reserve the unanimous testimony of contemporaries. 
Even those who criticise most severely Falkland's political 
achievements join ungrudgingly with his admirers in a 
tribute to the beauty of his life and character. To multiply 
instances would be tedious ; a single sentence representative 
of many shall suffice : — 

"We cannot doubt," writes Mr. Goldwin Smith, " his title 
to our admiration and our love. Of his character as a friend, 
and as the centre of a literary circle we have a picture almost 
peerless in social history." 

That picture is as flawless in execution as it is beautiful 
in conception, and to add to the words of Triplet and 
Clarendon is to paint the lily. How would Falkland have 
borne himself in the troubled times in store for his afflicted 
country ? Interesting as the question may be in a specu- 
lative sense it is one which the biographer is not called upon 
to answer. Enough for him to point to the record of the 
past and say pelix opportunitate mortis. Cut off in the 
flower of his youth, a stricken man at thirty-three, Falkland's 
career as a statesman can be judged only by the opening 
scenes. But though his political life remains a splendid 
torso, his personal life was, so far as human eye can see, 
rounded and complete. Never was his friend Ben Jonson 
more truly or more happily inspired than when he sang : — 



EPILOGUE AND APPRECIATION 339 

It is not growing like a tree 

In bulk, doth make men better be ; 
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 
To fall a log at last, dry, bald and sear : 
A lily of a day 
Is fairer far in May, 

Although it fall and die that night ; 

It was the plant and flower of light. 
In small proportions we just beauties see; 
And in short measures, life may perfect be. 



APPENDIX 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

THE primary authority for Falkland's life is Clarendon, 
History of the Rebellion, and Autobiography. Indeed 
a biographer may well say, " Clarendon, Clarendon, toujours 
Clarendon ". My references (except where otherwise stated) are 
to the edition of the Rebellion published at Oxford in 1839, of the 
Life in 1827. For criticism of Clarendon cf Firth, af>. English 
Historical Review, vol. xix., Nos. 73, 74, 75. Rushworth, Historical 
Collections (London, i6Q2),andNalson's Collections (London, 1682), 
are invaluable, as are the Journals of the Houses of Lords and 
Commons. S. R. Gardiner's Constitutional Documents (Clar. 
Press) ; May's History of the Long Parliament ; Baillie's Letters 
and Journals ; Strafford's Letters; Whitelocke's Me??iorials ; Anthony 
Wood's Athence Oxonienses (ed. Bliss, 18 13), and Life (ed. Clark, 
Oxford, 1891); variousvolumes of the Historical MSS. Commission; 
the Verney Memoirs ; Cases in the Courts of Star Chamber and 
High Commission (ed. Gardiner for Camden Society) ; Lismore 
Papers (ed. Grosart) ; Aubrey, Lives (Oxford Hist. Soc), are more 
or less important. Falkland's most important speeches are printed 
verbatim in the text, generally from Rushworth corrected from 
Cobbett. His Poems have been collected and edited by A. B. 
Grosart (1870). I have printed in the text, virtually in extenso 
(from "King's Pamphlets," E. 121, British Museum), A letter 
sent from the Lord Falkland 30 Sept., 1642, concerning the late 
conflict before Worcester (London, 1642), and have referred also 
to A discourse of Infallibility, with Mr. T. White's answer to it, 

34i 



342 FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 

and a reply from him. . . . Also Mr. W. Montague . . . his Letter 
against Protestantism, and his lordship's answer thereunto . . . to 
which are now added tivo Discourses of Episcopacy by Viscount 
Falkland and William Chillingworth, edited by Triplet, London, 
1660. The last-mentioned discourses are not included in the 
earlier edition of 165 1. 

Our knowledge of Elizabeth Tanfield, afterwards first Lady 
Falkland, is derived from a Life printed in 1861 (see note, p. 52). 
Lady Georgian a Fullerton's Life of Lady Falkland adds but little 
to it. For the second Viscountess Falkland, cf. Letter to Lady 
Morison containing many remarkable passages in the most holy life 
and death of the late Lady Letice, Vi-countess Falkland, by the 
Rev. John Duncon (first printed 1649). Lloyd's Memoirs and 
Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs of Charles L. throw an occasional 
light on Falkland and his friends. The works of the latter, 
especially Chillingworth's, are essential to an understanding of 
Falkland's position. 

Among modern works I have used freely the Dictionary of 
National Biography (though the articles on the first and second 
Lord Falkland are not free from error) ; Gardiner's History of Eng- 
land and Civil War ; Principal Tulloch's Rational Theology and 
Christian Philosophy in England in the Seventeenth Century 
(Blackwood, 1874), which contains an admirable appreciation of 
Falkland ; Lady Theresa Lewis's Lives of the Friends and Contem- 
poraries of Clarendon (Murray, 1852), containing a good though 
not wholly accurate life of Falkland ; W. Hudson Shaw's Lecture 
on Lucius Cary, Lord Falkland (Philadelphia, 1896) — an admir- 
able sketch ; W. A. Shaw's History of the English Church during 
the Civil Wars and under the Commonwealth, 1640-1660 (Long- 
mans, 1900). I much regret that owing to a curious mischance 
I failed to make acquaintance with Falklands (Longmans, 1897), 
an interesting work by the author of The Life of Sir K. Digby, until 
my book was nearing completion, otherwise I should doubtless have 
incurred a considerable debt to it ; and that F. A. Hyett's Gloucester 
appeared too late for me to make use of it. Money, Two Battles 
of Newbury ; Hallam, Constitutional History ; Courthope, His- 



APPENDIX 343 

tory of English Poetry ; Mrs. Sturge Henderson, Three Centuries 
of Life in North Oxfordshire; W. H. Hutton, English Church 
(1625-1714); Ditchfleld, Memorials of Oxfordshire ; H.A.Evans, 
Highways and Byways in Oxford and the Cot szv olds ; Boase, 
Oxford; H. O. Wakeman, The Church and the Puritans; Forster, 
Grand Remonstrance ; Sanford, Studies in the Great Rebellion, 
are among the modern works which I have laid under contribu- 
tion. The last two have something of the value of contemporary 
authorities, so careful is their research. Horace Walpole's Royal 
and Noble Authors contains a spiteful sketch of Falkland. 

Among many essays on Falkland the best are those of Lord 
Lytton (Quarterly Review, vol. 108 (i860), and reprinted in Prose 
Works), Matthew Arnold, Mixed Essays, and Goldwin Smith, 
Lectures and Essays (privately printed at Toronto, 188 1). 



INDEX 



Abbot, George, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 44. 

Ailesbury, Sir Thomas, holds Court of 
Requests in Oxford, 273. 

All Souls, College of, letter to the 
Warden and Fellows from 
Charles I., 275. 

Andrewes, Launcelot, Bishop of Win- 
chester, 42. 

Apology of 1604, 15, 16, 37. 

Argyle, 8th Earl of (Archibald 
Campbell), 214. 

Armine, Sir Wm. , one of Parlia- 
mentary Commissioners, March, 
1642, 291. 

Arminians, account of, 42. 

— objects of, 43. 

— alliance of, with Stuart monarchy, 

44. 

— influence of, in politics, 177. 
Arnold, Matthew, appreciation of 

Falkland, 8. 

Arundel, Earl of (Thomas Howard), 
appointed Commander in Chief, 
1639, 134. 

Ashburnham, Wm., 308. 

Astley, Sir Jacob, 143. 

Aubrey. Christopher, description of 
Falkland's appearance, 74. 

story of Mrs. Moray, 76. 

quoted, 107, 109, 311, 319. 

account of the rinding of Falk- 
land's body at Newbury, 318. 

Bacon, Francis, Lord Verulam, 2. 

Parliamentary functions pre- 
scribed by, 24, 175. 

Bagshaw, speaks in debate, 190. 

Baillie, Dr. Robert, claims of, for 
Presbyterianism, 38. 

dislike of toleration, 39. 



Baillie, Dr. Robert, quoted, 40, 154, 

155, i5 6 . J 77» !7 8 . 191, 303. 

account of Strafford's trial, 152, 

153- 

— — views of, 208. 

description of the treatment of 

the Scotch Commissioners at Ox- 
ford, 295, 296. 

comes to Oxford as Scotch Com- 
missioner, 295. 

Balfour, Sir Wm., Lieutenant of the 
Tower, 153. 

Banbury, surrenders to King Charles 
I., 260. 

Bankes, Sir John, Chief Justice, signs 
declaration at York, 244. 

with King Charles I. at Oxford, 

270. 

Bastwick, John, 160. 

Baxter, Richard, quoted, 156. 

Beale, Dr., head of St. John's Col- 
lege, Cambridge, 57. 

Bedford, Earl of (Francis Russell), 
sits in Long Parliament, 147. 

promised high office by Charles 

L, 154. 

death of, 213, 224. 

Berkeley, Sir Robert, judgment in 
Hampden's case, 130. 

Berkshire, Earl of (Thomas Howard), 
with King Charles I. at Oxford, 
270. 

Berwick, pacification of, 138. 

Bishops' Bill, the first, 191. 

the second, 193, 194, 195, 196, 

205, 206. 

" Bishops' War," first, 136, 137. 

— — second, 146. 

Bristol, takes side of Parliament, 

249- 

— surrenders to Prince Rupert, 304. 



345 



346 



FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 



Bristol, Earl of (John Digby), with 
King Charles I. at Oxford, 270. 

Brooke, Robert Greville, Lord (1628), 
sits in Long Parliament, 148. 

leads a skirmish near Oxford, 

268. 

mentioned, 282. 

Browne, Robert, religious opinion of, 
38. 

Brownists, the, account of, 90. 

Buckeridge, John (Bishop of Roches- 
ter, 1610; Ely, 1628), 45. 

Buckingham, Duke of (George Vil- 
liers), favourite of James 1., 2, 9, 
55. 124, 157 158. 

reason for Eliot's attack on, 24. 

Burford, 7. 

— traditional birthplace of Falkland 

(Lucius Cary), 40. 

— early home of Falkland, 56. 
Burghley, 1st Lord (Robert Cecil), 25. 
Burnet, Bishop, testimony of, 3. 
quoted, 103. 

Burrows, Prof. Montagu, reference 
to, 276. 

Burton, Henry, 160. 

Byron, Sir John, at Worcester, 253. 

skirmishes at Brackley, 268. 

account of the battle of New- 
bury, 316. 

account of Falkland's death, 

317- 

CiESAR, Sir Charles, Master of the 
Rolls, 287. 

Canning, George, member for New- 
port, 140. 

Carew, Thomas, 90. 

Carleton, Lord (Dudley Carleton), 281. 

Carlisle, Lady, 230. 

Carlyle, Thomas, 4, 9. 

Carnarvon, Earl of (Robert Dormer), 
1628, military operations of, 305. 

killed at Newbury, 315. 

— late Earl of, judgment on Falk- 

land, 8. 
helps to erect monument to 

Falkland's memory, 323. 
makes speech at unveiling of 

monument, 324. 
Cary, Anne, daughter of 1st Lord 

Falkland, goes to Great Tew, 59. 

— Anthony, 5th Viscount Falkland, 

dies, 1694, 327. 



Cary, Sir Edward, Knight of Alden- 
ham, 46. 

— Sir Henry, 1st Viscount Falkland, 

son of Sir Edward Cary, 46. 

— Henry, 1st Viscount Falkland, 

early life of, 54, 55. 
4th Viscount Falkland, anec- 
dotes of, dies, 1663, 326. 

— Lorenzo, youngest son of Lucius, 

2nd Lord Falkland, dies, 1645, 
326, 331. 

— Lucius, birth of, 46. 

early education of, 56-58. 

devotion to his mother, 58, 

59, 60. 
given command of a company 

at age ol nineteen by his father, 

65. 
quarrels with Sir Francis 

Willoughby, 65, 66. 

— — imprisoned, 66. 

inherits his grandfather's pro- 
perty, 1629, 66. 

— — marries Letice Morison, 67. 
distress at his father's anger, 

71. See also Falkland. 

— Henry, 6th Viscount Falkland, 327. 

— Lorenzo, second son of 1st Vis- 

count Falkland, 55. 

at Exeter College in 1628, 55. 

name entered at St. John's, 

Cambridge, 57. 

— Lucius, 3rd Viscount Falkland 

dies, 1649, 326. 

— Lucy, daughter of 1st Lord Falk- 

land, goes to Great Tew, 59. 

— Mary, daughter of 1st Lord Falk- 

land, goes to Great Tew, 59. 

— Patrick, son of 1st Lord Falkland, 

goes to Great Tew, 59. 
is sent abroad, 60. 

— Placid, son of 1st Lord Falkland, 

goes to Great Tew, 59. 

is sent abroad, 60. 

Chalgrove, battle of, 305. 

Charles I. (King of England, Scotland 

and Ireland, 1625), character of, 2. 

— type of strong party man, 8. 

— first three years of reign of, 123, 

124. 

— ecclesiastical policy of, in Scot- 

land, 131 et seq. 

— dismay of, at dissolution of Short 

Parliament, 142. 



INDEX 



347 



Charles I., summons Council of Peers 
to York, 144. 

— watches Strafford's trial, 152. 

— extract from letter of, to Strafford, 

154- 

— decision of, regarding judges, 173. 

— gives his assent to the Second 

Bishops' Bill, 1641, 206. 

— sets out for Scotland, August, 1641, 

210, 211. 

— conduct of, 213. 

— suspected of complicity in the Irish 

Rebellion, 214. 

— questioned sincerity of, 220. 

— returns to London from Scotland, 

November, 1641, 223. 

— sends for Hyde, 225. 

— negotiation of, 226. 

— demands arrest of Five Members, 

229. 

— comes in person to arrest Five 

Members, 230. 

— failure of, 231. 

— and the militia question, 237. 

— slights Essex and Holland, 241. 

— orders Courts of Law and the two 

Houses to adjourn to York, 242. 

— issues Commissions of Array, nth 

June, 1642, 243. 

— sets up standard at Nottingham, 

244. 

— partisans of, 248, 249. 

— declares Essex and his officers 

traitors, 251. 

— publishes message to Parliament, 

253- 

— sends Falkland to Rupert, 259. 

— marches from Edgehill to Oxford, 

260. 

— takes up winter quarters at Oxford, 

264. 

— writes to Vice-Chancellor Pride- 

aux asking for loan from the Uni- 
versity, 267. 

— lodges in Christ Church, 271. 

— letter of, to All Souls, 275. 

— prides himself on an appreciation 

of style, 281. 

— lays a wager with Falkland, 282. 

— receives deputation from City of 

London, 289. 

— answer to Parliamentary Com- 

missioners, 291. 

— obstinacy of, 294. 



Charles I., treatment of the Scotch 
Commissioners, 295. 

— wishes to reply to the Scotch 

Commissioners, 296. 

— position of, in 1643, 306. 

— pacifies Hyde, 308. 

— military decision regarding Glou- 

cester, 309. 

— abandons siege of Gloucester, 313. 

— heads off Essex from Newbury, 3 1 4. 

— withdraws troops from Newbury, 

3I4- 

— sleeps at Mr. Coxe's at Newbury, 

315- 

Charles, Prince of Wales, 1637, in- 
corporated M.A. at Oxford, 271. 

Cherry, Sir Wm., entertains King 
Charles before Edgehill, 259. 

Cheynell, Rev. Francis, enmity to 
Chillingworth, 115. 

Chichester, Sir Arthur, Lord Deputy 
of Ireland, 63. 

Chillingworth, William, at Great 
Tew, 59, 80, 90. 

influence of, on Falkland, 109, 

118. 

account of life of, no- 16. 

helps Hyde to go North, 242. 

quotation from sermon of, 248. 

preaches before the King at Ox- 
ford in 1643, 274. 

at the siege of Gloucester, 310. 

Clarendon, Earl of (Edward Hyde), 
portrait of Falkland, 3. 

quoted, 57, 66, 70, 7g, 80, gg. 

his History of the Rebellion, 

100, 101. 

quoted, 70, 75, 108, 109, 118, 

123, 127, 130, 131, 141, 142, 145, 
146, 147, 149, 178, 180, 205, 219, 
224, 226, 227, 228, 232, 233, 234, 
235, 238, 241, 242, 246, 251, 277, 
278, 288, 292, 296, 305, 306, 308, 
311, 314, 315, 320. 

opinion of, concerning ship- 
money, 175. 

description of Edgehill, 260. 

light thrown by, on state of 

King's councils duringthe sojourn 
in Oxford, 271. 

anecdote related by, 281. 

quotation from, describing the 

deepening gloom of Falkland's 
spirits, 285, 286. 



348 



FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 



Clarendon, Earl of, tribute to memory 

of Falkland, 325. 
Clotworthy, Sir John, member for 

Maldon in Long Parliament, 151. 
Coke, Sir Edward, C.J., 2, 175. 
Conway, 2nd Viscount, appointed to 

one of chief commands in the 

army against the Scotch, 143. 
Cork, Earl of, suggested marriage 

with daughter of, 70. 
Council of the North, 126, 160. 
Court, High Commission, 126, 160. 

— of the Marches, 126, 160. 

— Prerogative, 126, 160. 

— Stannery, 126, 160. 

— Star Chamber, 126, 160, 167. 
Courthope, Dr. W. J., on the Caroline 

poets, 84. 

quoted, go. 

criticism of Falkland's verse, 96. 

Covenant, Scottish National, drawn 

up, 132. 
Cowell, Dr., opinion of King's author- 
ity, 19. 
Cowley, Abraham, connection of, with 

Falkland, go. 

lines to Falkland, 135, 136. 

Coxe, Gabriel, Mayor of Newbury, 

entertains King Charles for the 

night, 315. 
Crisp, Sir Nicholas, Commission of 

Array issued to, 297, 298. 
Cromwell, Oliver, type of strong party 

man, 8. 
enters the Long Parliament 

as M.P. for Cambridge, 1640, 148. 

— — promotes Root and Branch Bill, 

197. 

thinks debate on Grand Remon- 
strance will be short, 216. 

reply of, to Falkland, 219. 

his opinion of the Parliamentary 

forces, 258. 

genius of, 303, 322. 

Culpepper, Sir John, sits in Long 
Parliament, 148. 

— ■ — appointed member of Commis- 
sion on Ship- Money, 1640, 167. 

— — said by Clarendon to have per- 

suaded Charles I. to sign the 

Bishops' Bill, 206. 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

223. 
attends Charles I., 230. 



Culpepper, Sir John, meets Falkland I 
at Hyde's house, 233. 

— — official connection with Hyde, 

234- 

remains in London, 238. 

hears of plot against himself, 

Falkland and Hyde, 239. 

joins King at York, June, 1642, 

242. 

signs declaration at York, 244. 

sent with message to Parlia- 
ment by Charles I., 252. 

sleeps at Culworth before Edge- 
hill, 259. 

with King Charles I. at Oxford, 

270. 

claims promise of Charles I., 

287. 

friction with Hyde, 308. 

goes to Bristol with Charles I., 

308. 

D'Aubigny, Lady, 298. 

Dering, Sir Edward, sits in Long 
Parliament, 148. 

brings forward Root and Branch 

Bill, 197. 

opposes the Grand Remon- 
strance, 218. 

D'Ewes, Sir Symonds, quoted, 180, 
219. 

description of the passing of 

the Grand Remonstrance, 219. 

— — mentioned, 252. 

Digby, Lord, votes for Strafford, 155. 

speaks and votes against Bill of 

Attainder, 156 157. 
speaks in debate, 190. 

— — influence on Charles II., 294. 
Digges, Dudley, 2. 

Disraeli Benjamin, 1st Earl of 
Beaconsneld, allusion to Falk- 
land, 333. 

Divine Right of Kings, 21, 22. 

Dover, 4th Earl of, 1024 (Edward 
Sackville), 252, 298. 

Duncon, Rev. John, biographer of 
Letice, Lady Falkland, 77, 327. 

quotation from, 328, 331. 

Earle, John, Bishop of Salisbury, at 
Great Tew, 80, 106. 

96. 

Edgehill, battle of, 260. 



INDEX 



349 



Edgehill, moral effect of battle of, 262. 

Edward VI., ecclesiastical influences 
under, 29. 

Eliot, Sir John, not opposed to mon- 
archical institutions, 2. 

opinion of, 21. 

attack on Buckingham, 24. 

Elizabeth, Queen, late years of, 13, 
16. 

— ecclesiastical policy of, 30. 

— death of, 31. 

Elizabethan settlement, the, 28. 
Essex, 3rd Earl of (Robert Devereux), 

second in command of King's 
troops, 134. 

passed over, 143. 

sits in Long Parliament, 147. 

advises Strafford's death, 154. 

among leaders of Long Parlia- 
ment, 213. 

required by Charles I. to resign 

the post of Chamberlain, 240, 241. 

appointed to command Parlia- 
mentary army, 244. 

declared traitor, 251. 

takes the field, 253. 

bars the King's way at Ban- 
bury, 259. 

withdraws to Warwick, 260. 

march of, to relieve Gloucester, 

265. 

dogged resolution of, 303. 

takes Reading, 305. 

— — marches to Gloucester, 312. 

slips past King Charles, 313. 

enters Gloucester, 313. 

tactics of, at Newbury, 314. 

Executive Government, question of 

control of, 24. 

Falkland, 1st Viscount (Henry Cary), 
appointed Lord Deputy of Ire- 
land, 56. 

dispute with his wife, 58. 

influence of, on character of his 

son Lucius, 61. 

literary efforts of, 61. 

strong Protestant sympathies 

of, 63. 

recalled from Ireland, 64. 

failure of his rule there, 65. 

petitions King Charles to re- 
lease his son Lucius from prison, 
66. 



Falkland, 1st Viscount (Henry Cary), 
anger at marriage of Lucius, 67, 

death of, 72. 

— Elizabeth, Viscountess, theologi- 

cal interests of, 58. 

quarrels with husband and 

parents and comes to London, 58. 

— — sends her two younger sons to 

a Catholic seminary abroad, 60. 

her death in 1639, and influence 

of, on character of her son Lucius, 
60. 

— Lenice, Viscountess, account of, 

77. 78. 

— — pious life of, 327. 

executrix of Falkland's will, 

327- 
death and burial of, 331. 

— 2nd Viscount, 1633 (Lucius Cary), 

popular estimate of, 1. 

Clarendon's portrait of, 3. 

not a party man, 8. 

late recognition of merits of, 11. 

attains manhood, 45. 

succession of, to title, 72. 

compelled to sell Burford, 72. 

personal appearance of, 75. 

domestic happiness of, 76. 

love ior his wife, 78. 

prejudice against Laud, 78. 

couplet by, 83. 

extract from his poem to 

George Sandys, 85, 86, 87. 

poem on the death of Ben 

Jonson, 92-95. 

merits of, as a poet, 95, 96. 

extracts from last poem to 

Sandys, 97. 

absorbing interest of, in theo- 
logy, 98, 99. 

friendship with Sheldon, 104. 

estimate of his theological 

work, 116, 117, 118. 

views of, on Infallibility of 

the Church of Rome, ng-22. 

defaulter in ship-money, 128. 

extract from his elegy on 

Ben Jonson, 128. 

ambitious of military service, 

129. 

obeys Charles I.'s proclama- 
tion of January, 1639, volunteers 
under Essex, 134. 



350 



FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 



Falkland, 2nd Viscount, 1633 (Lucius 
Cary), his life after the Bishops' 
War, 136. 

enters Parliament, 1640, 139. 

inclines to side with Parlia- 
ment, 142. 

interest of, in work of Long 

Parliament, 150. 

delivers maiden speech, nth 

November, 1640, 151. 

share in Strafford's trial, 154, 

155. 156. 

attitude towards Strafford, 

157-59- 

speech on ship-money, 161- 

66. 

appointed member of Com- 
mittee on Ship-Money, 1640, 167. 

speech after impeachment of 

Lord Keeper Finch, 1640, 168-73. 

thanked by House of Com- 
mons for his services in the im- 
peachment of Finch, 173 

motives for opposing ship- 
money, 174-76. 

— — interest of, in the Church 
question, 177. 

speech on the Root and 

Branch petition and the Ministers' 
Remonstrance, 1S1-90. 

differs from Hyde, 192. 

opposes Second Bishops' Bill, 

193. 194- 
speech against Root and 

Branch Bill, 198-204. 

churchmanship of, 206. 

wishes Charles I. to postpone 

Scotch expedition, 211. 

ridicules the " Incident," 214. 

speech against Grand Remon- 
strance, 217. 
and the Grand Remonstrance, 

221. 

Secretary of State, 223. 

brought specially to notice of 

Charles I., 225. 

forebodings of, 228. 

reports King Charles' answer 

to House of Commons, 230. 
question of responsibility, for 

attempted arrest of the Five 

Members, 232. 

meetings with Culpepper, 233. 

at Hyde's house, 234. 



Falkland, 2nd Viscount, 1633 (Lucius 
Cary), influence of, 235. 

attempts to avert war, 236. 

letter to Hyde, 239, 240. 

— — communicates with Essex and 
Holland, 241. 

joins King at York, 242. 

has slight difference with Hyde, 

243- 

signs declaration at York, 244. 

delivers message from Charles 

I. to Parliament, 252. 

letter from, to Lord Cumber- 
land, 254-57. 

his impression of the Parlia- 
mentary forces, 258. 

sleeps at Culworth before 

Edgehill, 259. 

sent with instructions to Prince 

Rupert, 259. 

at battle of Edgehill, 260. 

work of, in first session of Long 

Parliament, 160, 161. 

sympathy of, with Sir Edmund 

Verney, 261. 

letter from, to Lord Gray of 

Warke, 262. 

hopes of peace shattered, 264. 

with King Charles I. at Ox- 
ford, 270. 

depression of, at Oxford, 281. 

lays a wager with King Charles 

I., 282. 

urges Hyde's preferment on 

King Charles I., 288. 

want of sympathy of, with 

the King, 288. 

sends safe-conduct for Parlia- 
mentary Commissioners to Ox- 
ford, 290. 

treats with Parliamentary 

Commissioner, 291. 

plays leading part in peace 

negotiations at Oxford, 292. 

letter from, to Sir Thomas Roe, 

293- 

disagrees with King Charles as 

to the answer to the Scotch 

Commissioner, 297. 
complicity of, in Waller's 

Plot, 299, 300. 

increasing sadness of, 307. 

goes to Bristol with Charles 

L, 308- 



INDEX 



351 



Falkland, 2nd Viscount, 1633 (Lucius 
Cary), makes up quarrel between 
Culpepper and Hyde, 308. 

— at the siege of Gloucester, 310. 
share of responsibility in de- 
ciding King Charles to besiege 
Gloucester, 311. 

sleeps at Mr. Head's at New- 
bury, 313. 
killed at Newbury, 315. 

— attaches himself as a volunteer 
to Sir John Byron at Newbury, 
316. 

— buried at Great Tew, 318. 

— death of, opinions as to motive, 
319. 320. 

reply of, to Hyde's letter, 321. 

hopes before Newbury, 321,322. 

monument erected to, at New- 
bury, 323. 

tribute of Clarendon to his 

memory, 325. 

mourners of, 326. 

— • — will of, 327, 328. 
appreciation of, 331. 

— — quintessence of his creed, 332. 
his vote on the Grand Re- 
monstrance, 334. 

■ moderation of, 335. 

possessed the secret of the 

future, 335. 

personal character of, 336. 

distinguishing marks of letters 

and speeches of, 338. 

Fell, Dr. Samuel, Dean of Christ 
Church, 269. 

Fiennes, James, sits for Oxfordshire 
in Long Parliament, 148. 

Fiennes, Nathaniel, represents Ban- 
bury in Long Parliament, 148. 

speaks in debate, 190. 

sits on committee, 191. 

combines with Falkland to op- 
pose Second Bishops' Bill, 195. 

at skirmish ofPowick Bridge, 

253- 

quoted, 309. 

Finch, Sir John, impeachment of, 160. 
action in regard to ship-money, 

161. 
attitude of Falkland towards, 

161. 
impeached, escapes to Holland, 

168. 



Forster, John, quoted, 228, 232, 233. 

Fortescue, Sir John, 14, 20. 

Fuller, Thomas, quotation from ser- 
mon of, 248. 

Fullerton, Lady Georgiana, quoted, 
58. 

Gardiner, S. R. , opinion of, as to 
Falkland's death, 5. 

eulogy on Falkland, 9, 10. 

opinion of Apology of 1604, 15. 

quoted, 116, 236, 300. 

— — his opinion on Falkland's at- 

titude towards ship-money, 128, 
129. 

views of, on the Grand Re- 
monstrance, 220. 

takes Falkland to task, 258. 

opinion of, as to the manner 

of Falkland's death, 320. 

— — opinion of Falkland, 332. 
Gerard, Father, opinion of, on Gun- 
powder Plot, 34. 

Gladstone, Wm. Ewart, his opinion 

of Laud, 125. 
Gloucester, Essex marches to relief 

of, 265. 

— importance of, in Civil War, 303, 

305- 

— importance of its siege, 309. 

— resistance of, 322. 

Godolphin, Sidney, Clarendon's ac- 
count of, 89. 

sits for Helston in Parliament 

of 1640, 148. 

Goldwin Smith, opinion of, on Falk- 
land's theology, 116. 

opinion of Falkland, 334. 

quotation from, 338. 

Graces, the, concessions known as, 63. 

Grand Remonstrance, the claims made 
in, 24. 

debate on, problems of, 216,222. 

effects of, 225. 

Gray of Warke, Speaker of the Peers, 
pro tern., November, 1642, 263. 

Great Tew, 7. 

early home of Lucius Cary, 56. 

— — description of, 73, 74. 

description of life led there by 

Falkland, 79. 

Falkland, Lord, buried at, 318. 

memorial tablet erected in 

church of, 324. 



352 



FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 



Great Tew, Letice, Lady Falkland, 
buried at, 331. 

Grenville, Lord, part assigned to, in 
King Charles' strategical de- 
sign, 302. 

Gresley, Sir George, 70. 

Grimston, Sir Harbottle, speaks in 
debate, 190. 

Grosart, Dr. A. B., 95. 

Gunpowder Plot, 34. 

Hales, John, account of, 90, iog. 

— — quoted, 108. 

Hallam, Henry, 4. 

views on the Grand Remon- 
strance, 220. 

quotation from, 247. 

Hamilton, Marquis of (James Ham- 
ilton), the " Incident," 214. 

appointed High Commissioner 

in Scotland, 132, 133. 

Hammond, Dr. Henry, at Great Tew, 
80. 

sketch of his career, 104, 105. 

Hampden, John, not opposed to mon- 
archical institutions, 2. 

protests against ship-money, 

128, 129. 

sits in Long Parliament for 

Bucks, 148. 

pre-eminence of, in Long 

Parliament, 149. 

member of Committee to con- 
sider information against Straf- 
ford, 151. 

attitude towards Second 

Bishops' Bill, 193, 194. 

share in Grand Remonstrance, 

220. 

one of the Five Members, 229. 

death of, 305. 

Hazelrig, Sir Arthur, an unequivocal 
Republican, 3. 

sits in Long Parliament, 148. 

appointed member of Com- 
mittee on Ship-Money, 167. 

promotes Root and Branch 

Bill, 197. 

one of the Five Members, 229. 

Head, Mr., entertains Falkland the 
night before Newbury, 315. 

Henderson, Alexander, comes to Ox- 
ford as Scotch Commissioner, 
295. 



Henrietta Maria (Queen of England, 
1625), arrival of, 35. 

reconciles the first Lord and 

Lady Falkland, 5g. 

influence of, on Charles I., 206, 

232, 294. 

leaves for Holland, 238. 

prejudices of, 240, 241. 

lodges in Merton College, 271. 

returns from Holland, 279. 

meets King Charles I. at Edge- 
hill and enters Oxford in State, 
279. 

— — lands at Bridlington, 304. 
energy of, 306. 

Henry VIII., King, will of, 21. 

— and the Reformation, 28. 

— Prince of Wales, 33. 

Herbert, Sir Edward, Attorney-Gene- 
ral, 229. 

Hertford, Earl of (Wm. Seymour), sits 
in Long Parliament, 148. 

— Marquis of (Wm. Seymour), with 

King Charles I. at Oxford, 270. 
dispute of, with Prince Rupert, 

307- 

goes to Oxford with Charles 

I., 308. 

Hiron, John, case of, 49. 

History of the Rebellion, by Edward 
Hyde, Lord Clarendon, merits of, 
100. 

Holborne, Robert, counsel for Hamp- 
den, 22. 

sits on committee, 191. 

brought to notice of Charles I., 

225. 

Holland, Sir John, one of Parliamen- 
tary Commissioners, March, 1642, 
291. 

— Earl of (Henry Rich), appointed 

General of the Horse, 134. 

sits in Long Parliament, 148. 

required to resign office at 

Court, 241. 

Holies, Denzil, sits for Dorchester in 
Long Parliament, 148. 

sits on committee, 191. 

one of leaders of Long Parlia- 
ment, 213. 

one of the Five Members, 

229. 

Hooker, Richard, exponent of Armin- 
ian principles, 42. 



INDEX 



353 



Hopton, Sir Ralph, takes Arundel 
Castle, 114. 

sits for Wells in Long Parlia- 
ment, 148. 

— Sir John, part assigned to, in King 

Charles' strategical design, 302. 

clears Cornwall, 303. 

victory of, at Stratton, 304. 

nominated Governor of Bristol, 

3°7- 
Howson, John (Bishop of Durham), 

45- 
Hull, secured for Parliament, 237. 
— {[importance of, in Civil War, 303, 

304. 
Huntingdon, Countess of, epitaph on, 

61. 

Hyde, Edward, sits for Saltash in 
Parliament of 1640, 148. 

suggests appointment of Com- 
mittee on Ship-Money, sits him- 
self as member, 167. 

thanked by House of Com- 
mons, 173. 

differs from Falkland, 192. 

and Root and Branch Bill, 197. 

ridicules the " Incident," 214. 

opposes Pym, 215. 

opens debate on Grand Re- 
monstrance, 216. 

declines Solicitor-Generalship, 

223. 

King Charles I. promises pre- 
ferment to, 224. 

sent for by Charles I., 225. 

conducts negotiation for 

Charles I., 226. 

— — meetings at house of, 233. 
wanted by King at York, 

241. 

proposal to accuse him of High 

Treason, 242. 

has slight difference with Falk- 
land, 243. 

sleeps at Culworth before Edge- 
hill, 259. 

with King Charles I. at Oxford, 

270. 

subject of wager between 

King Charles and Falkland, 282. 

made Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer, 287, 288. 

■ sworn of the Privy Council 

and knighted, 288. 

23 



Hyde, Edward, complete sympathy of, 
with the King, 288. 

pacifies King Charles on the 

subject of the Scotch Com- 
mission, 297. 

goes to Bristol with Charles I., 

308. 

friction with Sir John Culpepper, 

308. 

letter from, to Falkland, 321. 

his vote on the Grand Remon- 
strance, 334. 

Inglesant, John, quotation from, 
280, 281. 

James I. (King of England, 1603-25), 
character of, 2, 17, 18. 

— and impositions, 22. 

— attitude of, to Protestantism, 32. 

— treatment of Roman Catholics, 33, 

34- 

— confounds Puritanism with Pres- 

byterianism, 38. 

— spends night at Burford in 1603, 

47- 

— his opinion of Laud, 125. 
James, Prince, Duke of York, created 

M.A. at Oxford, 271. 
Jonson, Ben, Pindaric Ode, 67-69, 

339- 

lines on Sir Henry Cary, 55. 

connection with Falkland, 91. 

Knevet, Sir Henry, paternal great- 
grandfather of Lucius Cary, 46. 

— Catherine, paternal grandmother 

of Lucius Cary, 46. 

Lambarde, William, 2. 

Laud, William, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, influence of, with 
Charles I., 78. 

relations of, to Hales, 109. 

relations of, to Bishop Morley 

107. 

characteristic exponent of Ar- 

minian principles, 42. 

estimate of, 124-26. 

ecclesiastical policy of, 131. 

part played by, in Short Parlia- 
ment, 141. 

impeachment of, 160. 

quotation from letter of, 266. 



354 



FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 



Lee, Sir Henry, K.G., of Ditchley, 

47. 242. 
Leicester, 2nd Earl of (Robert Sydney), 

with King Charles I. at Oxford, 

270. 
Lenthall, William, buys Burford 

Priory, 72. 

chosen Speaker, 146. 

sits for Woodstock in Long Par- 
liament, 148. 
Leslie, Alexander, leads the Scotch 

troops, 137. 
Lewis, Lady Theresa, 57. 

opinion of, 70. 

quoted, 285. 

Lilburne, John, 3. 

Lindsey, Earl of (Robert Bertie), Chief 

in Command at Powick Bridge, 

259- 

falls at Edgehill, 261. 

Littleton, Lord Keeper, ordered to 

demand resignation of Essex and 

Holland, 241. 
takes Great Seal to York, 241. 

— — signs declaration at York, 244. 
with King Charles I. at Oxford, 

270. 

Loftus of Ely, Viscount, 63. 

London, riots breaks out in, 143. 

city of, loyal support of Parlia- 
ment, 289. 

Presbyterianism of, 212. 

politics of, 249. 

King Charles' objective through- 
out the Civil War, 302. 

Loudoun, Earl of (John Campbell), 
comes to Oxford as Scotch Com- 
missioner, 295. 

Ludlow, Edmund, 3. 

quoted, 245. 

Lunsford, Colonel, quoted, 143. 

Lytton, Lord, on the Grand Re- 
monstrance, 220. 

quoted, 224. 

appreciation of Falkland, 333, 

334- 
quotation from, 335. 

Macaulay, Lord, 4. 

reference to Falkland's death, 5. 

— — quoted, 233. 

allusion to Falkland, 332. 

Mackintosh, Sir James, anecdote of, 
101. 



Maine, Sir Anthony, 51. 

Mainwaring, Dr. Roger, opinion on 
King's authority, 18. 

Mandeville, Viscount, 1620, after- 
wards Earl of Manchester, 1628, 
148. 

impeached, 229. 

Mary, Queen, restoration of Catholic- 
ism under, 29. 

Massey, Colonel, commands garrison 
of Gloucester, 310. 

Maurice, Prince, occupies Town 
Clerk's house in Oxford, 272. 

May, Thomas, librarian and his- 
torian of House of Commons, 45. 

quoted, 78. 

his opinion of Laud, 125. 

quotation from, 131, 137, 154, 

212, 262, 294, 305, 309. 

Maynard, John, represents Totness 
in Long Parliament, 148. 

Militia Bill, 236. 

Millenary Petition, the, 36. 

Ministers' Remonstrance, 181. 

Money, Mr. Walter, quotation from, 

3i 6 . 317- 
helps to erect monument to 

Falkland, 323. 
Montague, Dr. Richard, Bishop of 

Chichester, 44. 

— Walter, 90. 

Montaigne, George, Archbishop of 

York, 45. 
Moray, Mrs., 76, 77, 319. 
Morison, Sir Henry, 67. 

— Letice, daughter of Sir Richard 

Morison, marries Lucius Cary, 

67. 

rare qualities of, 75-78. 

confidence of Falkland in, 76. 

— Sir Richard, 67. 

Morley, George, Bishop of Win- 
chester, friend of Falkland, 3. 

at Great Tew, 80. 

107. 

— gives information to Falkland, 

242. 

Neile, Richard, Archbishop of York, 

1632, 45- 
Newbury, monument at, 7, 323. 

— battle of, 3, 314. 

Newcastle, seized by the Covenanters, 
144. 



INDEX 



355 



Newcastle, held for the King, 237. 

— Earl of (Wm. Cavendish), part 

assigned to in King Charles' 
strategical design, 303. 

successful in the North, 304. 

jealous of Prince Rupert, 307. 

New Model, the, 40, 303, 322. 

Newport, I.O.W., returns Falkland 
as member of the House of Com- 
mons, 1640, 139. 

Nicholas, Sir Edward, Secretary of 
State, 225, 287. 

Northumberland, Earl of (Algernon 
Percy), appointed to high com- 
mand in the army against the 
Scots, 143. 

sits in the Long Parliament, 

148. 

one of Parliamentary Commis- 
sioners, March, 1642, 291. 

Norwich, 249. 

Nottingham, King's standard raised 
at, 244. 

Oxford, King Charles I. reaches, 
260. 

— political temper of inhabitants of, 

265. 

— wisdom of choice of, as Charles 

I.'s headquarters, 265. 

— University of, political opinion of, 

266, 267. 

— focus of Royalist England from 

1642-46, 270. 

— preparations made for siege of, 

271. 

— temper of townsmen uncertain, 

274. 

Palmer, Geoffrey, sits on Committee, 
191. 

moves taking down names of 

opponents of the Grand Remon- 
strance, 218. 

Palmerston, Lord, member for New- 
port, 140. 

Parker, Samuel, quoted, 103, 104. 

Parliament, the Long, meets, 145. 

— the Short, dissolved, 141. 
Peard, George, moves the printing of 

the Grand Remonstrance, 218. 

Pembroke, Lord, sits in Long Parlia- 
ment, 148. 

Personal liberty, limitation of, 23. 



Pierrepoint, Wm., one of Parliament- 
ary Commissioners, 291. 

Pink, Dr. Robert, Warden of New 
College, bears active part in mili- 
tary preparations, 268. 

Pitt, William, 25. 

Plymouth, importance of, in Civil 
War, 303, 304. 

Portland, Earl of (Richard Weston), 
69. 

Portsmouth, held for the King, 237. 

Powick Bridge, skirmish of, 25, 259. 

Presbyterian, meaning of term, 38. 

Presbyterianism, no compromise pos- 
sible with, 39, 40, 41. 

Prideaux, Dr., Rector of Exeter, and 
Vice-Chancellor of the University 
of Oxford, 267. 

— Bishop of Worcester, 1641, 268. 
Prince, Thomas, quotation from, 36. 
Prynne, Wm., 160. 

Puritanism, intolerance of, 26, 31, 3g. 

Puritans, position of, 35. 

Pym, John, statesmanship of, 2. 

type °f strong party man, 8. 

speech in Parliament of 1640, 

140. 

conversation with Hyde, 145. 

sits for Tavistock in Long Par- 
liament, 149. 

in the Long Parliament, 149, 

150. 

vigilance of, as Parliamentary 

leader, 150. 

manages Strafford's impeach- 
ment, 151, 152. 

promised high office by King 

Charles I., 154. 

speech in House of Commons, 

179. 

announces "Army Plots," 210. 

desires rupture with Charles I., 

211. 

makes known news of the " In- 
cident," 213. 

endeavours to implicate the 

King in the Irish massacres, 215. 

— — speaks on the Grand Remon- 

strance, 218. 
responsibility of, for Grand 

Remonstrance, 220. 
his political foresight, 221. 

— — rumour of his becoming 

Chancellor of the Exchequer, 224. 



356 



FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 



Pym, John, one of the Five Members, 
229. 

partisans of, 248, 249. 

secret agents of, 2gg. 

diplomacy of, 303. 

— — realises importance of siege of 
Gloucester, 312. 

his solution of the constitu- 
tional problem, 334. 

claim for the vindication of his 

ideas at the Revolution of 1688, 
335- 

Reading, taken by Essex, 305. 

Rebellion, the Irish, 214. 

Richmond, Duke of, goes to Bristol 
with Charles I., 308. 

Roe, Sir Thomas, sits for University 
of Oxford in Long Parliament, 
148. 

quotation from letters of, to 

Falkland, 292. 

Root and Branch Bill, the, 170, 197, 
204, 205, 207. 

Rudyard, Sir Benjamin, sits for Wilton 
in Long Parliament, 148. 

speaks on the Grand Remon- 
strance, 218. 

Rupert, Prince, ordered to support Sir 
John Byron, 253. 

brilliance of his cavalry leader- 
ship, 259. 

captures Brentwood, 262. 

impetuosity of, 264. 

occupies Town Clerk's house in 

Oxford, 272. 

influence on Charles I., 295. 

takes Bristol, 304. 

dispute with Lord Hertford, 307. 

fails to stop Essex's march on 

Gloucester, 312, 313. 

cavalry dash at Newbury, 314. 

writes to Essex to ask for the 

dead bodies of Falkland and 
others after Newbury, 317. 

Rushworth, John, quoted, 168, 190. 

reference to, 290. 

Russell, Lord Wm., sits for Tavistock 
in the Long Parliament, 149. 

St. John, Oliver, counsel for Hamp- 
den, 22. 

sits for Totness in Long Parlia- 
ment, 148. 



St. John, Oliver, (Solicitor-General, 
1641), 173. 

St. John's College, Cambridge, 57. 

Sandys, George, account of, 84. 

Falkland's poem on, 86. 

Saye and Sele, Viscount (William 
Fiennes), protests against ship- 
money, 128. 

sits in Long Parliament, 147. 

promised high office by King 

Charles I., 154. 

one of leaders in Long Parlia- 
ment, 213. 

occupies Oxford, 26g. 

leaves Oxford, 270. 

Selden, John, friendship of, with 
Falkland, 88. 

sits for University of Oxford 

in Long Parliament, 148. 

votes for Strafford, 155. 

views of, 208. 

Sheldon, Gilbert, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, 1663, sketch of, 
102-4. 

Ship-money, 127, 129, 161, 167, 173. 

Skippon, Major-General, 231, 237. 

3i4- 

Smith, Philip, case of, 48. 
Southampton, Earl of, 1624 (Thomas 

Wriothesley), sent with message 

to Parliament by Charles I., 252. 
with King Charles I, at Oxford, 

270. 
Sovereignty, political problem of 

seventeenth century, 17, 175. 
Strafford, Earl of (Thomas Went- 

worth), type of strong party 

man, 8. 

vindication of, 124. 

wisdom shown by, 141, 142. 

comes from Ireland to lead 

forces against Scots, 143. 

impeached, 151. 

— — imprisonment of, 152. 

trial of, 153. 

execution of, 154. 

defence of, 156, 157. 

considerations on the career of, 

158, 159- 
Strangways, Sir John, brought to 

notice of Charles I., 225. 
Strode, William, 229. 
Suckling, Sir John, poem, "A Sessions 

of the Poets," 82, 83. 



INDEX 



357 



Sunderland, Lord, killed at Newbury, 

3*5- 
Symondes, Elizabeth, wife of Sir 

Lawrence Tanfield, 47. 
Giles, of Claye, Norfolk, 47. 

Tanfield, Elizabeth, wife of Sir 
Henry Cary, 46. 

early life of, 52. 

"marriage to Sir Henry Cary, 

54- 
becomes a Roman Catholic, 57. 

— Sir Lawrence, 47. 

unpopularity of, 48. 

death of, 52. 

— Lady, death of, 66. 

— Robert, of Burford, 47. 

Taylor, Dr. Jeremy, ministers to 
the dying after Newbury, 317. 

Tompkins, Nathaniel, brother-in-law 
of Edmund Waller, 298. 

Triplet, Thomas, description of Falk- 
land's appearance, 74. 

his view of Falkland's religion, 

98. 

editor of Falkland's " Of the 

Infallibility of the Church of 
Rome," 119. 

quotation from, 336. 

Tudors, strength of rule, 13, 14. 

Tulloch, Principal, tribute to Falk- 
land, 12. 

opinion of Hooker, 42. 

quoted, 119-22. 

Turnham Green, skirmish of, 262. 

Twisse, Dr., administers the sacra- 
ment to Falkland before battle 
of Newbury, 315. 

Udall, Sir Wm., 252. 
Ussher, James, Archbishop of Armagh, 
1624, 57, 162. 

Vane, Sir Henry (the elder), Secre- 
tary of State, 141. 

sits for Wilton in Long 

Parliament, 148. 

part played by, in Straf- 
ford's impeachment, 153. 

the younger, 3. 

sits for Kingston-on-Hull 

in Long Parliament, 148. 

part played by, in Straf- 
ford's impeachment, 153. 



Vane, Sir Henry (the younger), sits 
on committee, 191. 

promotes Root and Branch 

Bill, 197, 208. 

diplomacy of, 303, 322. 

Vaughan, Sir John, 88. 

Verney, Sir Edmund, sits in Long 
Parliament, 148. 

the King's standard bearer, 246. 

killed at Edgehill, 261. 

Sir Ralph, sits in Long Parlia- 
ment, 148. 

Lady, quotation from Memoirs, 

284. 

Villiers, Edward, wounded at New- 
bury, 316. 

Wakeman, H. O., quoted, 41. 
Waller, Edmund, connection of, with 

Falkland, 90. 

lines to Falkland, 135. 

sits for St. Ives in Parliament 

of 1640, 148. 
brought to King Charles' notice, 

225. 

account of, 298. 

Waller's Plot, account of, 297-301. 

— Sir Wm., letter from, quoted, 247. 
defeated at Lansdowne and 

Roundway Down, 304. 
Walpole, Horace, sketch of Falkland, 

4- 
depreciation of Falkland by, 

332. 
anecdote told by, of the 4th 

Viscount Falkland, 326. 

— Sir Robert, 25. 
Warmstrey, case of, 51. 
Warwick, Earl of, 1618 (Robert Rich), 

sits in Long Parliament, 148. 

secures the fleet for Parliament, 

238. 

— Sir Philip, quoted, 219, 307, 320. 
Wellesley, Sir Arthur, member for 

Newport, 140. 

Wellwood, Dr. James, anecdote of 
Falkland in Memoirs of, 283. 

quotation from, 320. 

Wenman, Sir Francis, 87. 

Wentworth, Thomas, Earl of Straf- 
ford, importance of his influence, 

3- 

Lord Deputy of Ireland, 63. 

vindication of, 124. 



358 



FALKLAND AND HIS TIMES 



Wentworth, Thomas, advice of, to 
Charles I., 133. 

his knowledge of Scotch ques- 
tion, 137. 

created Earl of Strafford, 138. 

Wharton, Lord, sits in Long Parlia- 
ment, 148. 

Whitelocke, Bulstrode, account of 
Falkland's death, 5. 

attributes failure of Short 

Parliament to Laud, 141. 

quoted, 154, 294, 295, 319. 

thanked by House of Com- 
mons, 173. 

one of Parliamentary Commis- 
sioners, March, 1642, 291. 

Whitgift, John, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 31. 



Wick, Sir Peter, with King Charles 
I. at Oxford, 270. 

Willoughby, Sir Francis, quarrel of 
Falkland with, 65. 

Wilmott, Lord, at Edgehill, 261. 

Windebank, Sir Francis, impeach- 
ment of, 160. 

Wood, Anthony, 54. 

asserts that Lucius Cary was 

sent a foreign tour, 65. 

quoted, 267, 273, 296. 

picture of daily life at Oxford 

during royal occupation, 271. 

Worcester, Earl of (Edward Somer- 
set), loyalty of, 306. 

Worcester, occupied by Essex, 253. 

Wren, Mathew, Bishop of Norwich 
181. 



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